MATH

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.” Decreed references the word sent by God, that later sprouts, buds and flourishes. The ‘decree’ does not need to therefore refer to a decree or edict set by some earthly king. If we see it in line with the pronouncements to other kingdoms in the book of Daniel (empires of Babylon, Mede & Persia, Greece and Rome that are no more) then this would be very worrying. But the end spoken of here, is wrapped up in the ‘kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies’ from John12:24. Your people are Daniel’s people, the Jews. Your holy city is Jerusalem and is at the heart of the Jewish people. Often in scripture, Jerusalem or Zion, is synonymous with a people; the Jews or Church. But here, since ‘your people’ has already been mentioned, it is therefore referring to the place only. To finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness is the price paid by Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. To bring in everlasting righteousness is the empowerment to do what is right; the right standing that we can have before God who sees that are sins are no more. God’s justice is satisfied by his son’s sacrifice. To seal up vision and prophecy is that in Jesus all vision and prophecy has its fulfilment. Anoint the Most Holy place [or just Most Holy]. The word ‘anoint’ needs to be understood in the sense of an instrument, being an object or a person, used for God’s special purpose. Here it speaks of Jesus as high priest anointed (Exodus 29:21) to enter the Most Holy place, but best explained in Hebrews: My Interpretation of the 70 Sevens - Not based on Ezra nor Nehemiah, but the building of the first temple (Darius I) & the freeing of a people (Esther) to fill Jerusalem.