The prophecy of the 70 weeks is given in context of an answer to Daniel’s prayer delivered directly by the angel of the Lord. Daniel 9 is comprised of the prophet’s prayer followed by the answer to the prayer.

Daniel’s prayer is full of his understanding of the prophets. He was living during the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah had prophesied that the desolation of Jerusalem would last for 70 years.

‘And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. "Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity," says the LORD’ [Jeremiah 25:11-12].

For thus says the LORD: "After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place…And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you", says the LORD, "and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you", says the LORD, "and I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive" [Jeremiah 29:10-14].

Daniel is given to prayer as Jeremiah’s 70 years are nearing completion. The Persians under Cyrus are about to conquer Babylon. He makes confession of sin and petitions the Lord for mercy. He appeals to the Lord for His name sake and the covenant promises.

"O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name." [Daniel 9:4-6]

Daniel makes the important link between loving God and keeping His commandments. He acknowledges his own sin and the sin of his countrymen. They have disregarded the prophets by turning away from the commandments and the judgment of which Moses had prophesied had come upon Israel. Jerusalem is desolate; the temple is destroyed. The people have been taken captive and scattered among the nations.

‘All Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.’ [Daniel 9:11 referring to Deuteronomy 28]

A restoration is spoken of by Moses in which Israel will return to the land after their captivity. Associated with the restoration, Moses prophecies of the New Covenant with the saying, ‘God will circumcise your heart...to love God…that you may live.’

"Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you…that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you…And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." [Deuteronomy 30:1-6]

The New Covenant prophesies of Jeremiah 31 clarifies this work of God as writing the Law on the heart of His people. This is part of the fault of the first covenant. The Law was written on tablets of stone rather than on the heart. Jeremiah’s prophecy is applied in the New Testament in Hebrews 8 and 10. Note that Old Testament Israel ‘did not continue in the covenant and God disregarded them.’

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." [Hebrews 8:8-12 quoted from Jeremiah 31]]

Christ institutes the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper by referring to His death as the guarantee of the New Covenant promise of putting away sins.

Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. [Matthew 26:26-28]

Daniel’s prophecy of the work of Messiah includes the theme of the New Covenant and its great blessing of the forgiveness of sin.

‘Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.’ [Daniel 9:24]

Daniel’s prayer concerns the people of Israel and the holy city of Jerusalem. The answer to the prayer addresses Daniel’s concerns. Seventy sevens or seventy "weeks of years" is the time frame given by the angel in which the prophecy would be fulfilled. The period of time is broken up into 7 weeks and 62 weeks and a final week for a total of 70. It is not coincidence that this period is 7 times the period of captivity. This prophecy is an example of the blessing of forgiveness and the manifold grace of God.

Sorrowful darkness had brooded over Israel for seventy years, but God will now follow up this period by one of favor of sevenfold duration, because by lightening their cares and moderating their sorrows, He will not cease to prove himself propitious to them even to the advent of Christ. This event was notoriously the principle hope of the saints who looked forward to the appearance of the Redeemer. [Calvin]

There is nothing in the text that would indicate that these weeks are not consecutive and continuous. The 70 years of captivity had no gaps. A literal reading of the text gives no hint of a gap in the 70 weeks. The claims of Scofield literalism fail at this point since he invents a gap between weeks 69 and 70; a gap that has now lasted over 2 millennium, long past the original time period of 70 times 7 years.

It is quite certain, that these seventy years and seventy weeks ought to be joined together…the angel’s object was to offer consolation in the midst of sorrow. For seventy years the people had been miserably afflicted in exile, and they seemed utterly abandoned, as if God would no longer acknowledge these children of Abraham for His people and inheritance. [Calvin]

We will give the historic teaching of the church, which is called the first advent view. The prophecy has to do with the person and work of Messiah which includes the destruction of the holy city and the temple. There is nothing new or original here; credits to Augustine, John Calvin, Matthew Henry and E. J. Young.

The errors of Scofieldism will be apparent and legend, since he holds to a second advent view with the church age being the gap. He misses the intent of the prophecy to bring to fulfillment in the coming of Messiah the great themes of the Old Testament revelation, including the New Covenant and the everlasting Kingdom of God and the King of glory.

‘Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory.’ [Psalm 24:9-10]

Next post: The 70 weeks opened to reveal the work of the King of glory.