Alright. Here. Let me give you this, Dan. Thank you. Well, Dan, I can't believe I did better the final time that I did in practice, but alright.

Daniel chapter nine. Daniel chapter nine. If you remember last week, Daniel was praying the first 23 verses are about Daniel's prayer. It is the first year of Darius. So now Babylon has fallen and now Daniel is serving in the administration of Darius in Medo Persia, the kingdom that followed Babylon.

And he as he is reading in Jeremiah, we looked at last week, he realized that the seventy year prophecy given by Jeremiah was soon to be up. And after seventy years, Jeremiah prophesied that some would be able to return to Jerusalem to begin to rebuild Jerusalem and Judah. So Daniel began to pray for that to be soon and for the people's hearts to be ready, including himself. And just a few years later, Cyrus, the king of Persia, would make a decree recorded in Chronicles and also in Ezra that would send the Israelites back, a handful of them, to Judah and to Jerusalem to rebuild at the seventy year mark just as Jeremiah had prophesied. So that brings us to verse 24 and we move from the seventy year prophecy to the seventy week prophecy.

And so you say, pastor, we move from a longer time period to a shorter time period because it's not seventy weeks less than seventy years. Well, it would seem so, except that the word week as translated into our English Bible actually simply means a set of seven. Okay? So, like if you bought eggs, you would buy eggs by the what? By the dozen, okay?

We order eggs, we buy eggs, everything by typically by the dozen, okay? We order our days by weeks and months and years. A week is simply a set of what? A set of seven days that's repeated on our calendar over and over again. It is a set of seven.

Just like a dozen is a set of 12, a week is a set of a set of seven. In scripture, you have a Sabbath day, you have a Sabbath year. Every seventh year was a Sabbath year. You you didn't take the Sabbath the entire year, but but they allowed the land to lie fallow on the seventh year, Sabbath of years. And then every fiftieth year after seven sets of seven years would be the year of what?

Jubilee. And he would set the captives free and the the slaves free and the land would return to the family that had lost it during that time period in the year of Jubilee. And so there's a lot in the Bible having to do with seven. Of course, all of that goes back to the very creation of the world when God created the world in six days and on the seventh day, he what? He rested.

All of that points back to that. But in scripture, particularly in prophecy here, it's not seventy weeks as we'll read as in set 70 sets of seven days, it's 70 sets of seven years. Okay? So that is a week, a set of seven years, 70 sets of seven years that we're going to read about, not 70 sets of seven days, okay? So, just keep that in mind as we start reading in verse 24 as God gives the answer to Daniel concerning his prayer, but he doesn't just give a little answer, he goes way above and beyond in giving the answer here to Daniel.

So, verse 24, Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, 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 Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. The street shall be built again, the wall even in troublest 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 sanctuary or temple.

And the end thereof shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm, that is the people, the prince that shall come, The the prince that's talked about in verse 26, shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, for one set of what? Seven years, not days. One set of seven years. He shall confirm a covenant for many for one week, one set of seven years.

In the midst of the week, those seven years, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. That's the sacrifices in the temple. In the previous chapter, Daniel talked about a man named Antiochus Epiphanes who did that before the coming of Christ for a time, eventually was overthrown. He is a type of the one that is to come, the antichrist that is spoken of here that will do very similar in causing the sacrifices in the temple to cease. So, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abomination, she shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determine shall be poured upon the desolate.

So, this is the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel given to Daniel by Gabriel. It's interesting in the preceding verses. It tells us is that that Gabriel shows up after Daniel finishes praying and Daniel says, I've come swiftly as soon as you started praying, the Lord sent me to bring you this message, the message we just read in verses 24 through 27. It is interesting to note that it was Gabriel that bought the message to Mary of her conception by the Holy Spirit. It was Gabriel that bought the brought the message to Zechariah concerning the coming birth of John the Baptist, and it is Gabriel that brings this message to Daniel, which also has to do with the birth of Jesus Christ.

Not so much his birth, but with his announcement of his Messiahship, and we'll see about that in just a moment. So Gabriel, interesting, has a lot to do. He seems to be the preferred messenger when the message has to do with who? With Jesus, the Messiah. Okay?

Now, I'm going to read a passage here concerning from the book that I have, David Jeremiah, that corresponds to what we just read, the seventy weeks prophecy. So, reading, Leopold Cohn, a European rabbi, studied the prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel and on the basis of verses twenty five and twenty six, came to the conclusion that the Messiah had already come. Puzzled by this, he approached an older rabbi and asked, where is the Messiah? The rabbi didn't know the answer but told him he thought the Messiah was in New York City. Interesting.

Socone sold almost everything he owned and bought a passage to America seeking the Messiah. He arrived in New York and began to wander up and down the streets looking for the Messiah. One night, he walked past the door of a gospel mission and heard people singing. He went in and sat down in the back of the room and heard a preacher talk about Jesus Christ, the Messiah. That night, Leopold Cone received this same Jesus as his savior.

Soon after, Cohn bought a stable, swept it out, and set up some chairs and began to hold his own gospel meetings. That was the first outreach of what was to become Chosen People Ministries. It all started because rabbi a rabbi read the ninth chapter of Daniel. Important passage of scripture that as we will see this evening should have told the Jews when the Messiah was coming. So, if you would look back at our seventy weeks prophecy there, in this prophecy, God gives a plan for Israel up to the coming reign of Jesus Christ.

Okay? We'll look back at that in a second. The previous passages in the book of Daniel have mainly had to do with the Gentile nations. It's talking about Babylon and talking about Persia and talking about Greece and talking about Rome and and all of those things. The focus has not been on, okay, what's going to happen with Israel?

It's okay. It's what has what's going to happen to Babylon and Persia and and Greece and these places. Those prophecies were about them and not so much about Israel. This prophecy remember, Daniel was just praying for his people and for his nation and asking God to answer his prayer concerning his people and their return to the land. And so this time, God gives Daniel a different prophecy.

This prophecy is very specific to the nation of Israel. You don't see anything in here specifically about Babylon or Persia or any of those things. It is about the nation of Israel, the descendants of Jacob whose name was changed from Jacob to Israel, and about the holy city, which is what? What's the holy city? Jerusalem.

Okay? That's what this passage is about. He says in verse 24, seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, Israel, and upon thy holy city, that's Jerusalem. So not Susa or Shushan or Babylon or or whatever. Specifically about Israel and about Jerusalem is God giving this prophecy.

There is a lot about the future of Israel in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel because God was not done with Israel yet. The book of Ezekiel and much of Jeremiah was written after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. And, of course, Daniel was written after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. But God is not done with Israel yet. He wasn't done in that day, and he is not done in our day either.

And there's several passages concerning that. Isaiah nine, six, and seven is one of my one of my favorite passages. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. That's Jesus. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace.

So that is a a well known verse. A lot of people have memorized this verse of scripture. But this passage is not complete without going to the next verse. Okay? Because the son the the child that is to be born, the son who is to be given, whose the government, the government of Israel shall be upon his shoulder, it continues on, of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no what?

No end. Now Israel had seen ends. They had seen the end of Israel and Judah as they were conquered by Assyria and Babylon. They will see an end to Jerusalem and Israel again after the resurrection return of Christ that we'll talk about in a few minutes. But there will come a day when there will be no what?

No end to the reign of the seed of David in Jerusalem. Of the increase of the government and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Not the zeal of the people of Israel, but the zeal of who? The Lord of hosts.

Israel had tried again and again and Israel had what? Failed. But God won't fail. He won't fail to keep his promises and his king will not fail. Turn if you would hold your place in Daniel.

Turn if you would to Jeremiah. Jeremiah. So you turn back just a little bit there. Ezekiel is the book right before Daniel and then Jeremiah. Jeremiah 33.

Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah is writing as Babylon is coming to conquer Jerusalem. So Jeremiah 33, we'll begin in verse 14. This is what God has to say. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised in the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

In those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, that is the city, the Lord, our righteousness. For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel, neither shall the priest, the Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt offerings and to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice continually. And we could keep reading and you would see more of the same. So God is saying to Israel, this isn't the end.

We're not done. I'm not done with you yet. I made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, to David, and I'm gonna keep those promises. And those promises have to do with one day the seed of David sitting on the throne of in Jerusalem, ruling for a thousand years and then into all and then into eternity. This prophecy is concerning the coming of the seed of David who will fulfill that that promise.

The the child who is to be born, the son who is to be given will fulfill that promise to Israel. And this prophecy is concerning his coming and all that will come as a result of that. So this is a plan for Israel and for Jerusalem. Number two, the duration of the prophecy is 70 times seven years, okay? Not days but years.

So, if you take 70 times seven years, how many years do you end up with? Four hundred ninety years. So this prophecy is very specific in that all of this is to be accomplished in four hundred and ninety years. Okay? For Israel and the city of Jerusalem.

Okay? Four hundred ninety years, verse 24 again, seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Verse 24 then gives us a summary of what is going to happen, what will be concluded at the end of this four hundred and ninety years. So we have a list there. To finish the transgressions.

That is to end the rebellion against who? Against God. The end of the four hundred ninety years, the rebellion against God will be ended. Number two, to make an end of sins for sin to be put out. Number three, to make reconciliation for iniquity.

Reconciliation. For Jesus died, suffered the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit. That is first Peter two:nine. And so we are told that here that Christ would come, that at the end of this four hundred ninety years, that reconciliation would be made between the people and their God. This speaks of the atonement of Jesus Christ for it is the death of Christ on the cross that makes this possible.

If Christ hadn't died on the cross, there would be no what? No reconciliation between God and man. For there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. To bring in everlasting righteousness, that is to bring Christ to reign in righteousness over his kingdom, to seal up the vision and prophecy, that is to bring an end to prophecy and visions. When will the end of prophecy and visions come completely?

When all prophecy is what? Is fulfilled. When all prophecy is fulfilled, there will be no more need for prophecy at all. Number six, to anoint the most holy. That is anoint Christ as priest and king in his new temple of which Ezekiel describes a contemporary of Daniel beginning in Daniel chapter 40.

So all of these things will be accomplished by the end of these four hundred and ninety years, these seventy sets of seven years. So four hundred and ninety years and God will accomplish these things that he says in verse 24 that specifically concern the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Okay? So four hundred and ninety years for those things to be accomplished. So we see who it's for, the duration, and the division.

There is a division of the prophecy. Okay? So there's not just seventy years, but we see a division between the first 69 and the seventieth. And even the first 69 is divided into seven and sixty two and then seventieth. So let's read again in verse 25.

Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, we'll come back to that in a second, Unto the Messiah, the prince, that's Jesus Christ. Messiah means the anointed one. In the Old Testament, who was anointed? Kings and priests. Jesus is both.

He is the king and priest. The messiah, the prince. So there'll be from the going forth the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. So seven sets of seven, that's forty nine years, and then sixty two sets of seven, which is four hundred and thirty four years. You add the two together and you get four hundred and eighty three years, sixty nine weeks.

Okay? So from the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the coming of who? The Messiah of Israel, who we know is Jesus Christ. From the from the command to go and rebuild the city till the coming of Jesus the Messiah will be four hundred and eighty three years. Four hundred and eighty three years.

That's what Daniel is telling us here. At the end of that four hundred and three eighty three years, the Messiah will be seen, will be recognized in Jerusalem by some. The first forty nine years, the first seven weeks of that, they will it says here, the street shall be built again in the wall even in troublesome times. So, the first forty nine years of that 483 will be given to rebuild the city and it won't be an easy task. There will be many enemies that will try to keep Israel from rebuilding the city as they return after the command is given to rebuild it.

And so that will take forty nine years and then it's followed by four four hundred and thirty four, which bring us to the day of the revelation of the Messiah. This God has told Israel via Daniel ahead of time. And then in verse 27, you have the seventieth week, but we'll come back to that in a few minutes or actually next week. So who is the Messiah, the prince, the anointed one? Well, he is the child that is to be given, the son that is to be born.

He is the the seed of David that is to rule on his throne forever. Second Samuel seven and when the days be fulfilled, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers. I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels. I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom.

How long? Forever. Was that Solomon? Did Solomon rule forever? No.

So who is that? Well, that's the Messiah. Okay? And that's Jesus. Why does Matthew spend the first half, the first chapter of Matthew with a genealogy?

Now I don't know about you, but when I was a kid in particular and I got to a book and I had to read, so and so begat, so and so begat, so and so begat, so and so begat, so and so, and I got kind of bored, you know. But there is a purpose in Matthew starting that with a genealogy. What is he doing? He's tracing the lineage of who? Jesus back to two very important figures, Abraham and David.

He is the seed of Abraham through which all the world was to be blessed. Promise God made to Abraham. And he is the seed of David who will sit upon his throne, how long? Forever. That's Jesus Christ.

He is the Messiah. He is the one prophesied to come, to fulfill this after four hundred and eighty three years, after the command to restore and to build Jerusalem. In Micah five two, we're told, but thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though there'll be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose signs, whose whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting. And we have several prophecies concerning different aspects of the Messiah. One of them is he is to be born where?

In Bethlehem. And, of course, that's why Luke takes time to explain that though Jesus' parents were from Nazareth, he was born where? In Bethlehem in fulfillment of this passage. Why? Because he is the promised Messiah, the Messiah, the prince that's mentioned here in verse 25.

Know therefore to understand, for from the going forth the command to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. Sixty nine weeks, four hundred and eighty three years. Four hundred and eighty three years. So March fourteenth, four forty five BC, something very important happened. March fourteenth, four forty five BC.

What happened? Well, what was the beginning of the four hundred and eighty three years? The command to what? Restore and build Jerusalem. Now, Ezra went back as sent by Cyrus to rebuild the temple and to take some of the Jews back with him.

But the streets and the walls were not rebuilt until another command was given by another king. That command was given from what we can tell on March fourteenth, four forty five BC. It was given by Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, and it was given to Nehemiah. So turn back to Nehemiah if you would. So in order to figure out when this prophecy is to occur, when it is to be fulfilled, you have to find out when the command to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem was.

Therefore, back to Nehemiah. Okay? So Nehemiah chapter one. So I'm gonna read a bunch of verses here. So probably wanna turn there if you can.

Nehemiah chapter one. Nehemiah is part of the captives of Israel. However, he has exalted position in the house, in the palace of Artaxerxes where he is the king's cup bearer. And that's where our story begins in Nehemiah chapter one as we learn when the command was given to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem. So Nehemiah one, the words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah, it came to pass in the month Chisleu in the twentieth year as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hananiah, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, were left to the captivity concerning Jerusalem.

So Nehemiah is asking, how is Jerusalem doing? Now, he's probably heard that some have gone back in order to see how things are and to start to rebuild the temple and rebuild their society. And so he's hoping to hear that Jerusalem is faring better. However, verse three, they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is what?

Broken down. The walls have not been rebuilt and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And as if you continue to read through his prayer here, you will see a very similar prayer to the one Daniel prayed at the beginning of Daniel nine. A prayer of repentance for the nation of Israel and a prayer for God to keep his promises and to restore them.

In verse 11, it says, O Lord, I beseech thee, let Thine ear be attentive to my prayer, to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy servants who desire to fear Thy name and prosper. I pray thee thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man for I was the king's cup bearer. Chapter two verse one, it came to pass in the month of Nissan 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 before time 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 forever. Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's 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 pleased the king and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou would send me unto Judah under the city of my father's sepulchres that I may what? Next two words. Build So has it been built yet? The answer is no. The city is not.

Have the walls been rebuilt yet? The answer to that is no. They have not. Verse six, and the king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him, for how long shalt thy journey be and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me and set him a time.

Moreover, I said unto the king, if it pleased the king, let letters be given unto me to the governors beyond the river that they may convey me over till I come unto 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 in. And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon him. And so the king sent by decree Nehemiah with a letter to Jerusalem to what? To restore and to rebuild the city and the what? And the walls.

Okay. Back to Daniel. Daniel was written preceding this by several years. Back in Daniel, what did he write in Daniel chapter nine? Well, let's look at it again.

Daniel chapter nine and verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks, threescore, and two weeks. So from the command to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of Christ or the announcement will be four hundred and eighty three years. We now have a beginning date. That beginning date is March 14. There may be some debate over the particular day, but the month and the year are pretty solid.

Why? Because if you were noticed as we're reading in Nehemiah at the beginning of chapter one, we're given a time as to when this is taking place. At the beginning of chapter two, we're given another time. Why? Because the time that this command is given is what?

It's important. Why is it important? Because four hundred and eighty three years following this day, who are they going to see? Messiah the prince, four hundred and eighty three years. Now, little note.

In our day, how long is a year? Three hundred and sixty five days in a year. So on our calendar, there's three hundred and sixty five days. However, in the day in which these were written, how long was a year on the calendar? It was three hundred and sixty days, not three hundred and sixty five.

Okay? Why three hundred sixty days on the calendar and not three hundred and sixty five? Well, because a month a week is a set of seven days. A month how do you determine a month? 30 why thirty days?

Why is thirty days normally a month? What what how did they decide what a month was? You might know? Something that orbits the earth. Lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle of the moon determines the length of the month. That's how months were originally set up. And how long does it take for the moon to have one cycle around the earth? Thirty days. Thirty days, one cycle moon.

That's how a month was established. In a year, there are 12 cycles of the moon, each thirty days. So the original calendar back in this day had twelve months of how many days? Thirty days. 12 times 30?

Three 160. So a year was three hundred and sixty days. Because there's actually 365 a quarter, every four years we have to have a leap day. Every so often, they had to add more than a day, they had to add a month to make up for the month that they were off. Three hundred and sixty days though was a calendar year.

So, here you go. You take four hundred and eighty three years. Is that not the time period? Four and eighty three years, seven sixty nine weeks instead of seven years. Four and eighty three times three hundred and sixty days and you come up with one one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days.

K? So four eighty three times three sixty, hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days. Now, you take March fourteenth, four forty five BC, you add one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days, and it takes you to April '32. April '32. Now what happened on April 6?

Jesus rode a donkey through the gates of Jerusalem to a crowd laying palm branches in the street and hailing him as the son of who? The son of the son of David, which is a messianic title. So 04/06/8032, pretty confident about that date, was the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem to a crowd proclaiming him to be who? The Messiah. And they shouldn't have been the only ones.

It wasn't the whole city turning out that day, by the way. More people from the city would turn out a few days later to cry, crucify him. But this we call the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. And we find that recorded in Matthew chapter 29. So if you'll turn with me to Matthew, and I need to put a bookmark here in Daniel, I don't know why I do that.

Matthew chapter 21. Sorry. Matthew 21. Okay? So Matthew 21, we'll read about the triumphal entry of Christ on April '32.

In fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, born eighty three years after the command of Nehemiah to go back and to rebuild the what? The city and the walls. So Matthew 21, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, were come to Beth Page, unto the Mount Of Olives, then sent Jesus to disciples saying to them, go into the village or against you straightway, you shall find an tied and a colt for her with her, lose them and bring them unto me and if any man say odd unto you, you shall say the Lord hath need of them and straightway, he will send them and this was all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, take you the daughter of Zion. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass. And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them and brought the ass in the colt and put them put on them their clothes, and they sat him there on.

And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches from the trees and strawed them in the way, and the multitudes that went before that followed cried saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. This is what we have termed triumphal entry of Christ. We celebrate on what is called Palm Sunday, which happens approximately seven days before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate on what we call Easter.

This happened on the day that fulfills the prophecy that Daniel gave in Daniel chapter nine. And fulfillment okay. How did I get there? Alright. Here we go.

In fulfillment of another prophecy, which is supposed to be on my screen but isn't, that Matthew quotes from here from Zechariah chapter nine. Zechariah, a prophet during the time of between Ezra and Nehemiah, during the rebuilding of the temple and then later the walls, Zechariah gave this prophecy. He said this, rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion. Shout, oh daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, the king cometh under thee.

He is just and having salvation, lowly riding upon an ass and upon the colt, the foal of an ass. Matthew quotes that verse over here in Matthew. As Jesus fulfills that prophecy here in April '32. In fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy in Daniel chapter nine. They should have known.

Maybe they didn't understand the prophecy ahead of time, but it should have been easy enough to put together after the fact. That's what Leopold Cone did, a rabbi that read Daniel nine and went, wow, the Messiah has already come because Daniel told when he would come and he came. Just as he said. But this isn't the conclusion of this prophecy. Just a couple last and very important things.

So we see the presentation of the Messiah at the conclusion of the four hundred and eighty third year of this prophecy. No one understand that from the going forth the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto Messiah shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. Verse 26, and after the threescore in two weeks, after which comes after the seven, so it's 69. After the sixty ninth week, the Messiah shall be what? Shall be cut off.

So after the sixty ninth week has concluded. Now it it doesn't say the day after, two days after, three days after, but it says after the end of the sixty ninth week, after the conclusion of the four hundred and eighty third year, after the Messiah is presented as the Messiah in Jerusalem, after that, the Messiah will be what? Cut off. What's cut off mean? It means he will be slain.

He will be killed. We have a similar passage here in Isaiah 53 where it says, speaking of the Messiah, he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation for he was, what? Cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. That corresponds to verse 26 here that says, after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for who? Not not for himself, but not for himself.

And what does that mean? Well, he didn't die for his sins. He died for whose? He died for ours. So this passage tells us when the Messiah would be presented as such, and he was.

And this tells us that following that event, he would be killed, but not for his sins, but for ours. And that's exactly what happened when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But we're not done. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. So following the end of the four hundred and eighty third year, Messiah would be slain.

Now it tells us in Isaiah that he would be risen again. And, of course, we know Christ rose again as Jesus said he would do, told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to be crucified and then to what? To rise again. Doesn't mention that particular aspect here. But following Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, ascension to heaven, what would happen to the city of Jerusalem?

Well, it tells us here, following that, the people of the prince that shall come. The prince that shall come is who? That's the antichrist. And who is the ant what nation is the antichrist connected to in some way? The answer to that is Rome.

That is demonstrated in the Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the image, and you have Rome splits into two, the two legs, and then becomes the feet of iron mixed with clay, and the Antichrist comes out of that kingdom. Later, it speaks of the beast. The beast, in Daniel's previous prophecy is symbolic of Rome, and the Antichrist will proceed from that corresponding to the beast in Revelation chapter, I think it's 13. So the prince that shall come, not Jesus, not the Messiah, but you'll notice if you got King James, it's a little p where the one in verse 25 is big, is is capitalized. This one is lowercase.

And the people of the prince shall come. The Antichrist is connected to Rome. So the people, the prince that shall come are the Romans. Okay? But the and the people of the prince that shall come, the Romans, shall do what?

They shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. So at the very conclusion of the four hundred and eighty third year, after Nehemiah was sent back to rebuild the city, would the Messiah be presented as such, and he was. Following that presentation, following the end of that four hundred and eighty third year, he would be cut off. Following that, the city would be what? Destroyed by the Romans and the temple, the sanctuary, would be demolished.

What happened in 8070? The Romans came in as led by Titus, not the Titus, not Paul's Titus, a different Titus, Roman general named Titus. And what did they do? Once again, the city was destroyed. And as Jesus had told them, not one stone of the temple was left on the other.

And to this very day, you can visit Jerusalem and you can visit a park beside Jerusalem where you can look at the stones that were pushed off the side of the Temple Mount that are laying there for you to see. But none of them are up on the Temple Mount, they've all been what? Pushed off. And it wasn't a small feat, by the way, those stones weighed tons. The Romans, it took a lot of effort for them to push every one of those stones off that temple mount and destroy that temple.

In Matthew 23, we read what Jesus had to stay as he looked over Jerusalem after his their rejection of him. And in verse 37, I let's see. I have that. Yeah. I have that here.

There it is. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered the children even together, even as a hen gathereth her chicks under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Indicating that they would see him, what?

Again, for he is coming again. For he is coming to finish that which he began. But not at the end of the sixty ninth week, but at the end of the what? The seventieth week. At the end of the seventieth week, will Jesus return to finish that which he started when he came the first time to die?

So here's the thing. In Old Testament prophecy sometimes, it talks about events happening as though they were happening one right after the other, but there's a gap in between. When I was a senior in high school, we traveled out west to Colorado, and I grew up in mountains, so I was used to seeing mountains. But the Colorado Mountains, the Rocky Mountains are different than the Appalachian Mountains. They dwarf the Appalachian Mountains.

I mean, the Appalachian Mountains look like hills compared to the Rocky Mountains. And I remember we were traveling on interstate across Utah or Colorado and there was this these mountains in the distance and it looked like we were just a few miles away And an hour later, it looked like we were just a mile away, a few miles away. And an hour later, it looked like we were that mountain was so huge, it was so much further away than I thought it was. And as you looked at that mountain, you could see other mountains, what? Behind it.

And it looked like the mountain behind it was just right behind it. Well, you got past that mountain and here we go. Long ways to get to the next one. But some of the prophecies in the Old Testament, there's like those mountains. They appear to be close behind one another, but actually there's a big what?

A big gap in between. And as we talk about the seventieth week, we'll get there, not tonight. The seventieth week is the tribulation. And at the end of the tribulation, who returns? Revelation 19.

Jesus Christ. But there is a gap between the sixty ninth week and the what? And the seventieth week. And we're not told how long the gap is. The gap is at least two thousand twenty four years minus 32.

So what's two twenty four minus 32? That's however much that is, and if I do the math in my head, I'll mess it up. But anyway, whatever that number is, it's at least that long because that's how long it's been since the end of the what? The sixty ninth week and the presentation of the Messiah and his death and resurrection and ascension. That one day he is what?

He is coming back. And Daniel's gonna tell us what it is that begins that seventieth week. We learned that in verse 27. And we learned from Daniel and particularly from John in Revelation, what will happen during that seventieth week, that last seven years that leads up to the return of who? Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to fulfill all the things that are summarized in verse 24.

The seventy weeks prophecy. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, that you always keep your promises. And as you kept your promises to Israel, you kept the promise given here in Daniel, you came when you said you would. You are coming again to finish the job.

And we look forward to that day. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.