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THE SEVENTY WEEKS, PART 3

ABOUT MESSIAH

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)

In the previous chapter we examined the first of six things Messiah would accomplish at Jerusalem at the end of the 490 years, which the angel Gabriel calls 70 sabbatical weeks. The first three things are: to finish the transgression; to make an end of sin-offerings; and, to make reconciliation for iniquity. As we examined these things, we learned that they are exactly the things that are accomplished in New Testament salivation brought about by the atonement in Christ, the Messiah. The next three things refer to Messiah, Himself.

TO BRING IN EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS

Having considered the work of salvation as the solution to the problem of sin with its consequence, bringing in everlasting righteousness could be construed to be the ongoing result of that salvation. There is a very real sense in which this is true, but that is not the direct meaning of what the angel Gabriel says. The everlasting righteousness is what makes it possible for people saved from sin to live righteous lives.

Young’s Literal Translation expresses what Gabriel says in somewhat clumsy, but accurate, English: to bring in righteousness age-during. Two Hebrew words are used here. The first is o-lawm, meaning concealed as in the vanishing point or time out of mind; perpetual. The second word is tseh-dek, meaning the right, whether natural, moral, or legal.

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament comments on the word o-lawm:

Though [o-lawm] is used more than three hundred times to indicate indefinite continuance into the very distant future, the meaning of the word is not confined to the future. There are at least twenty instances where it clearly refers to the past.

The Theological Wordbook explains the meaning of the word tseh-dek:

The word describes the righteous standing of God’s heirs to salvation, with no charge to be laid against them, this righteousness, actually possessed by Messiah, is bestowed by him, thus pointing to the NT doctrine of Christ our righteousness.  The righteousness of God’s heirs of salvation attributed to them by God through faith in the redemptive work of Messiah in which God declares them righteous only because of the grace provided though that redemptive work.

The two words put together describe the everlasting righteousness Messiah brings in His own righteousness. This righteousness is clearly a correct moral standing with God wherein our lives have been made free from sin through the atonement in Christ. This righteousness is not the result of our own efforts or actions, it is the very righteousness of Christ that is imparted to us in salvation. It is an everlasting, or age-during, righteousness because its beginning is in Christ as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” (Revelation 13:8), a point in time so far in the past we cannot see it; a righteousness that will endure throughout the ongoing future. Adam Clarke comments on the concept of the o-lawm tseh-dek, everlasting righteousness:

. . . “the righteousness, or the righteous ONE, of ages;” that person who had been the object of faith of mankind, and the subject of predictions of the prophets through all the ages of the world.

Gabriel’s statement, “to bring in everlasting righteousness” reveals in prophecy a truth about the salvation Messiah will bring. The Jews under the Law of Moses with its sacrifices could find forgiveness of their sins, but they could find no abiding righteousness that would keep them from sinning. This prophecy reveals that Messiah will bring, not just the forgiveness of sins, in addition to forgiveness He will give people His own personal righteousness to empower their lives. His salvation will do more than blot out the record of past sins, it will enable people to live a holy life as He lived in His humanity.

The New Testament is filled with the glorious record of this truth and the work Christ has done for us. Romans 3:26 shows us that Christ’s purpose in coming was “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The previous verse introduces the propitiation of the blood of Christ; verse 26 tells us what the blood of Christ does for us. The fact that He shed His blood on the cross demonstrates His righteousness, which results in the justification of sinners who repent and put their faith in His blood. Adam Clarke comments on what the Apostle wrote:

To manifest now, by the dispensation of the Gospel, his righteousness, his infinite mercy; and to manifest it in such a way, that he might still appear to be the just God, and yet the justifier, the pardoner, of him who believeth in Jesus. Here we learn that God designed to give the most evident displays both of his justice and mercy. Of his justice, in requiring a sacrifice, and absolutely refusing to give salvation to a lost world in any other way; and of his mercy, in providing THE sacrifice which his justice required. Thus, because Jesus was an atonement, a ransom price, for the sin of the world, therefore God can, consistently with his justice, pardon every soul that believeth in Jesus. This is the full discovery of God's righteousness, of his wonderful method of magnifying his law and making it honorable; of showing the infinite purity of his justice, and of saving a lost world.

The gift of Christ’s righteousness saves us, not just from the presence and guilt of sin, but also from its consequence as Paul later writes in Romans 5:17, “For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Christ knew no personal sin; He is truly the righteousness of God. While we are incapable of comprehending the divine exchange He made on the cross, 2 Corinthians 5:21 states emphatically, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ took the responsibility for our sin and in turn gave us His righteousness. Christ lost none of His righteousness in doing so; it is limitless because it is the righteousness of God. The beautiful fact is that those who have repented of their sins and placed their faith in Christ have had the record of their sins expunged and have been given the personal righteousness of Christ in its place.

Jesus Christ is the righteousness of those who have been saved from sin. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Again, notice this is not our righteousness, for we have no personal righteousness God can accept. It is not the fact that we believe the gospel, or are part of a church, or hold to certain standards of conduct; the only righteousness we can have that will count with God is the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was conscious of this in his own life. He writes in Philippians 3:9, “[That I may] be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God.”

The bringing in of everlasting righteousness is the glorious ongoing result of what Messiah did in Jerusalem at the end of the 70 weeks of this prophecy.

TO SEAL UP THE VISION AND PROPHECY

The next thing Gabriel tells us about Messiah is that He comes to seal up the vision and prophecy. The expression “seal up” is the Hebrew word khaw-tham, simply meaning to close up or to seal. By extension, it can be understood to mean to make an end. Adam Clarke aptly explains this for us:

To seal up (“to finish or complete”) the vision and prophecy; that is, to put an end to the necessity of any farther revelations, by completing the canon of Scripture, and fulfilling the prophecies which related to his person, sacrifice, and the glory that should follow.

In Luke 22:37 Christ speaks a truth that verifies what Gabriel said to Daniel. He tells His disciples, “For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end.” Christ was speaking of His death and the fact that He would be executed alongside some transgressor, whom we know to be the two thieves crucified on either side of Christ. Dr. Albert Barnes gives some insight to what Jesus said:

Was reckoned among the transgressors. Not reckoned as a transgressor, but among or with them-that is, he was treated as transgressors are. He was put to death in their company, and as he would have been if he had been a transgressor. He was innocent, holy, harmless, and undefiled. God knew this always, and could not think of him, or make him to be otherwise than he was; yet it pleased him to bruise him, and to give him into the hands of men who did reckon him as a transgressor, and who treated him accordingly.

Matthew Henry adds:

Now that which is written must be fulfilled in me, and this among the rest, He was numbered among the transgressors—he must suffer and die as a malefactor, and in company with some of the vilest of malefactors. This is that which is yet to be accomplished, after all the rest, and then the things concerning me, the things written concerning me, will have an end; then I shall say, It is finished.

After His resurrection, Christ told His disciples that everything written about Him in the Old Testament was fulfilled. For this reason, there is nothing about Christ in Old Testament prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled. Luke records precisely what Jesus said, “Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (Bold added for emphasis). What Jesus said about the Old Testament prophecies concerning Him is very easy to understand: it was absolutely necessary that they all be fulfilled, which they were. Matthew Henry makes the point absolutely clear:

All things must be fulfilled which were written. Christ had given them this general hint for the regulating of their expectations—that whatever they found written concerning the Messiah, in the Old Testament, must be fulfilled in him, what was written concerning his sufferings as well as what was written concerning his kingdom; these God had joined together in the prediction, and it could not be thought that they should be put asunder in the event. All things must be fulfilled, even the hardest, even the heaviest, even the vinegar; he could not die till he had that, because he could not till then say, It is finished. The several parts of the Old Testament are here mentioned, as containing each of them things concerning Christ: The law of Moses, that is, the Pentateuch, or the five books written by Moses,—the prophets, containing not only the books that are purely prophetical, but those historical books that were written by prophetical men,—the Psalms, containing the other writings, which they called the Hagiographa. See in what various ways of writing God did of old reveal his will; but all proceeded from one and the self-same Spirit, who by them gave notice of the coming and kingdom of the Messiah; for to him bore all the prophets witness. (Bold added for emphasis).

Dr. Henry, back in the Eighteenth Century, understood that all things prophesied of Christ and His kingdom in the Old Testament were fulfilled at His first advent. Why do modern theologians believe in a future kingdom of God on earth using Old Testament prophecies for the foundation of their belief when Jesus said that all things concerning Him had been fulfilled?

TO ANOINT THE MOST HOLY

The sixth and final thing Gabriel says about Messiah is that He comes to anoint the Most Holy. There is a beauty in the Hebrew that is missing in the English rendering of this statement. In Hebrew the statement is maw-shakh ko-desh ko-dashim. Maw-shakh means to anoint, just as it is expressed in English. The double ko-desh, ko-desh ko-dashim is translated in English by the Holy of Holies. What is meant by this statement is that Messiah is one-in-the-same as the Holy of Holies of the temple. The Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat and that the very Presence of God dwelt in that little room as the Shekinah glory between the wings of the cherubim. In this statement about Messiah, Gabriel tells Daniel that He will be the very Presence of God as well as the Mercy Seat where propitiation is to be made for sin.

Jesus said about Himself in Matthew 12:6, “Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.” Jesus was answering a complaint the Pharisees had just made against Him. His answer was that God allowed King David to eat consecrated bread, which only priests were allowed to eat on the Sabbath. Priest were held harmless because the worked in the temple. Jesus applies these incidents to Himself, showing the Pharisees that He is greater than the temple; in other words, He is the ko-desh ko-dashim.

Malachi gave us a hint of this in Malachi 3:1, “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, Says the LORD of hosts.”

Adam Clarke wrote that maw-shakh ko-desh ko-dashim, refers to “the consecration or appointment of our blessed Lord, the Holy One of Israel, to be the Prophet, Priest, and King of mankind.”

The New Testament teaches plainly and emphatically that Jesus of Nazareth is God incarnate, and it calls Him by the title “Christ,” which means “anointed” and is the same in meaning as the Hebrew word Messiah.

In John 1:41, Andrew was so excited about meeting Jesus that “he first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ).’” Or as Young’s Literal Translation renders this verse: “We have found the Messiah, (which is, being interpreted, The Anointed.)”

The Apostle Peter, preaching at the house of Cornelius says this about the anointed one in Acts 10:38, “Jesus who is from Nazareth—how God did anoint him with the Holy Spirit and power; who went through, doing good, and healing all those oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.” God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power. Peter said that this diving anointing was seen ad expressed through the miraculous works done by Jesus. The anointing was the very fact that “God was with him.”

Finally, there is the prophecy in Isaiah 16:1–2 Jesus applied to Himself which He read in the synagogue when He began His public ministry. The text says in part, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor . . .” On this, Adam Clarke comments:

Hence the Son of God is called the Messiah, a Hebrew word signifying the Anointed, or the Christ, a Greek word signifying the same thing. And by his being anointed is not meant that he was literally anointed, for he was never set apart in that manner, but that God had set him apart for this work; that he had constituted or appointed him to be the prophet, priest, and king of his people.

Gabriel told Daniel a great deal about the mission of Messiah. In the previous chapter we saw how Messiah came to make atonement for sin and its consequence. In looking at the last three things the angel said would be accomplished in Jerusalem at the end of the 490 years, we find that Messiah came to impart the very righteousness of God to people He saves from sin; He came to fulfill everything that was prophesied about Him in the Old Testament; and, He came to be anointed and proclaimed by God as the very Messiah, Savior of all mankind.