This is an example of how we can so badly twist the Word by forcing our worldly rationalist viewpoint on a spiritual-mystical body of literature, which the Old Testament is.
Jesus was showing how His Father's standard of holiness was beyond comprehension, because one cannot simply separate sin, holiness and forgiveness as the rabbis had tried to do. God judges sin, and we are not Him. God's holiness was not about human success at repentance, but a tender conscience to revealed truth.
Then came Peter to him, and said, "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I say not to you, 'Until seven times:' but, 'Until seventy times seven.'" (Matthew 18:21-22)
The rabbinical scholars had been saying for some time one should forgive the same sin from the same person 3 times. If they apologize and express repentance, accept it. After that, you are safe assuming it is a serious problem, and you can hold it against them. Sounds reasonable to our Western rational minds, no? Peter, trying to outdo the righteousness of the Pharisees, offered to extend that to 7, a number heavy with mystical meanings to Jewish minds. It was number of completeness and holiness. Peter thought he was being generous.
Jesus showed how far Peter had to go to reach the Kingdom standard. Cutting off sin was not about stopping our fallen flesh from doing sin, but about cutting off the eternal consequence with a sacrifice by the aggrieved party. As God forgives without limit the broken soul who cannot seem to keep their flesh nailed to the Cross, so we channel that same grace to others who sin against us. In the act of forgiveness, we take power over our own sin. Standard Kingdom paradox.
In this teaching, Jesus handed us a key to something hotly argued even today: Daniel 9. Far greater scholars than I have discussed this to death, and many still reject the obvious answer. Jesus made a specific reference to Daniel's prophecy when He said "seventy sevens." In Hebrew, that's precisely word for word what Gabriel told Daniel. Whether you want to make of that "seventy weeks" or weeks of years, you can't afford to ignore the point of choosing that number.
In case you have trouble moving into the mystical mindset of Scripture, we note the number represents the final answer to sin according to God's own standard. Daniel was all so deeply concerned about Jerusalem and the Temple, because he had seen the deepening apostasy of his brethren in Babylonian captivity around him. He knew of no other way to bring them back. While having a Temple was not the answer itself, it was clearly harder without it.
So Daniel began praying for the restoration promised in Jeremiah, a copy of whose prophecy Daniel had at hand to read. God's response to Daniel was sending Gabriel with a message. There is no excuse for failing to notice the answer was couched in typical mystical Hebrew language. Assuming we can simply diagram it from the viewpoint of our Western rational minds is foolish. That's not the way God communicates. Frankly, it wasn't completely plain to the Hebrew mind, either. Nor would they expect to parse out the meaning of every word. It is wholly unwise to bring some meaning to it, but we must draw out the message in the whole Bible context. That context includes grasping the Hebrew viewpoint on the world, which can be rather foreign to our modern Western minds.
Getting hung up on the literal application of the numbers is a major mistake. Jesus said the "seventy sevens" is about holiness and forgiveness, about God bringing His standard and power to bear on the ultimate question of human sin. It was over this very thing Daniel had been praying, confessing he was partaker of the sins of his fathers. From where he stood, the best assumption was to include a rebuilt Temple in the formula. Gabriel's words, in spite of being rather mysterious, actually put this faulty idea to rest.
Seventy sevens are determined on your people and on your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and 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. (v. 24)
So Gabriel says, "God has a plan to fix this sin problem, and it still includes your brethren, and Jerusalem. This solution will destroy sin's power, along with ending the need for prophetic visions." There are multiple meanings to this "seventy sevens." The obvious one is the meaning Jesus took from it in His lesson on forgiveness, as He was showing how He fulfilled whatever it was Gabriel promised. That one point is the key, and to ignore that is to miss the whole thing: This is about the Messiah, a figure long known of in Hebrew literature from Genesis 3:15 onward.
There were various Medo-Persian decrees to sponsor rebuilding the Temple. Depending on how you reckon which Gabriel refers to, you might just about get 69 weeks of years until the Messiah shows up. That's really not significant, if you understand Hebrew literature. It's more important to see that Messiah comes as the climax of all that is central to Jewish religious life. Yes, the Temple and the city will be rebuilt, and will be rather complete. The final stages (the city wall) will be built during troubled times. Check out Nehemiah, and you'll see a literal fulfillment of that. But troubles won't prevent God fulfilling that promise.
That new Temple would stand for awhile. At some point, the Messiah would be executed, but not for His own crimes. That implies to the Hebrew mind He would die for the sins of others, harkening back to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Connected with that death would be the final destruction of the Temple, at the hands of whomever is political ruler of Jerusalem at that time. It will be ugly, and the city will be under siege; it would be as if there were a flood of water surrounding it. The Temple would be desecrated by these goons.
The reason for this will be the New Covenant of the Messiah. He will offer this Covenant to just about anybody (but Jews first, we learn later). With this new Covenant, there will be no further need of the sacrificial system. Those who cling to it will suffer greatly, for they will be rejecting God's New Way.
Once the human sin issue was finally settled in Heaven, there would no further need for the ritual Temple worship. That would have shook Daniel, even while he would have rejoiced. It had already been desecrated once, and it was going to happen again. However, that last and final destruction would signal the final solution from God's hand. Sadly, the Jews as a nation would reject it. Again, this would have saddened Daniel, though I doubt he'd be surprised. This line of thought was confirmed by Paul, premier Jew-boy himself, in Galatians. There, Paul writes the name "Israel" no longer applied to a nation of people with shared DNA and religion. Rather, it would be applied to a new nation of spiritual DNA. Only those in Christ could claim the name Israel.
There is way too much evidence to show the Early Church considered Daniel 9 fulfilled completely by 70AD. Further, Jewish scholars thought so, too. To see there is somehow a gap between the 7+62 weeks and the final week is completely foreign to a biblical perspective. It's a measure of desperation to shore up a false understanding arrived at outside of the Scripture.
By Ed Hurst
21 May 2007
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