Two thousand years ago, an anointed one was cut off and made a strong covenant. The substitutionary death of Jesus the Nazarene was the offering to end all offerings. He was our propitiation, satisfying the righteous judgment of God for all who would have refuge in him. 

Bible readers know the feeling of coming across a challenging verse. While we wish the meaning of everything in Scripture was equally clear, we know there are verses that interpreters classify as difficult to understand. Sometimes there are even whole paragraphs that challenge us. One such paragraph is Daniel 9:24–27. Those four verses are among the most difficult to interpret in the entire Bible. But thinking about them is worth it, because they are an angelic prophecy about the good news of future atonement by a strong covenant.

An Answer to Prayer

The angel Gabriel came to Daniel with words of insight about the future (Dan. 9:21–22). But the angel’s appearance was not arbitrary. It was in response to Daniel’s activity of confession and prayer (Dan. 9:20–21). Most of chapter 9 was Daniel’s bold prayer about the shameful deeds of the Israelites, about the need for great mercy and pardon for those transgressions, and about the hope of restoration to the promised land and holy city. The Israelites had sinned grievously, and the Lord was righteous when he sent them into exile and captivity.

Daniel’s prayer was from Daniel 9:3 to 9:19. The historical context for his prayer was the change in political administrations (Dan. 9:1–2). The Babylonian captors had fallen to the Medo-Persians in 539 BC. The timing signaled that Israel’s exile and captivity in Babylon was finally coming to a close. Daniel had been reading in the book of Jeremiah about the end of Jerusalem’s desolations after a seventy-year judgment (Dan. 9:2; see Jer. 25:1–14). Given the political upheaval in Babylon’s fall to Persia, Daniel knew he was living in the time when God would once again turn his face toward the covenant people and would hear their pleas for mercy and restoration. So Daniel prayed, “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name” (Dan. 9:19).

An Even Better Restoration

The angel Gabriel came to Daniel with information about the future, but this information was regarding the distant future—far after Daniel’s days. While Daniel had prayed for the pardon and near-restoration that would bring an end to exile and captivity, a political and geographical realignment would not address the deepest issue. The deepest issue for the Israelites—and for Gentiles—was the problem of sin. The greatest need, therefore, was atonement.

The promise of atonement was precisely the subject of Gabriel’s news. The angel told Daniel,

Seventy weeks [or seventy sevens] are decreed about your people and your holy city,
to finish the transgression,
to put an end to sin,
and to atone for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal both vision and prophet,
and to anoint a most holy place.
Daniel 9:24

We need to notice that Daniel had been reading about a period of “seventy years” (Dan. 9:1), and now Gabriel announces a period of “seventy” weeks/sevens (Dan. 9:24). The former period of “seventy” led to restoration, and the latter period of “seventy” would lead to an even better restoration. Gabriel’s words about “seventy sevens” draw upon Leviticus 25, which teaches about the Year of Jubilee. The Lord told Moses, “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years…. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you” (Lev. 25:8, 11).

Given the background of Leviticus 25:8 to Gabriel’s words in Daniel 9:24, we can see that Gabriel is promising an extraordinary time of liberation. This liberation is on a scale that surpasses anything in Israel’s history. While Leviticus 25 spoke of a jubilee after seven sevens, Gabriel spoke about a liberation after seventy sevens. The year of Jubilee in Leviticus (which occurred after forty nine years) was the year of the Lord’s favor. According to Gabriel, this grand and future Jubilee (which would occur after 490 years) would be a time of unprecedented favor—a tenfold Jubilee!^[1]

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