Interesting thing, because he's the one who gives the countdown, God, through him.

But it's amazing because when you open up the New Testament, guess who it is who's revealing that the countdown is going to be fulfilled?

Gabriel.

This is Daniel's prayer of intercession.

And notice he's saying, our.

Now Daniel's a holy man, righteous, loves God.

But he says, our sins.

He joins himself with the sins of his people.

He joins himself and intercedes for them.

He doesn't condemn them.

He pleads with God for them.

Prophetic.

And then something happens.

It shows you how powerful it is to pray in intercession and repentance for a nation.

Something we have to remember concerning America.

Something happens.

Verse 20.

That's the context.

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel, and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill, Jerusalem, while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

He instructed me and said to me, Daniel, I've now come to give you insight and understanding.

As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, and I have, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.

Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

Seventy-sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for evil, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.

Know and understand this.

From the time the word goes forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Anointed One, the Ruler, comes, there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens.

It will be rebuilt with street and trench, but in times of trouble.

After the sixty-two sevens, the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.

The people of the Ruler, or the Prince who is to come, will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

The end will come like a flood.

He will confirm a covenant with one, with many, for one seven.

In the middle of the seven he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.

And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Okay.

This is one of the, this is one of the most amazing prophecies ever given.

So amazing that there was a man, there was a rabbi in Eastern Europe, an Orthodox rabbi who saw this.

And this alone caused him to become a believer in Jesus.

And he started an organization called the American Board of Missionaries of the Jews.

Now it's called Chosen People.

And from that organization came Jews for Jesus.

It all started with this prophecy.

Let's first establish what we have seen here.

The prophecy is so powerful, so exact.

It has been argued by anti-missionaries and those who oppose the Gospel, since it was fulfilled, that the main argument of the, against it, among these, is that it's not talking about the Messiah.

Because the same word can be translated, an anointed.

It can be an anointed priest, or an anointed person.

It's used in the Bible, an anointed.

Plus it says, ... the first word anointed, but the second word prince.

So it can mean an anointed prince.

That's what they argue.

But none of the arguments can stand.

Number one.

Whenever the word anointed is used in the Bible, it is qualified by something.

And it gives a context, so you know it's an anointed.

This person is anointed.

This is an anointed.

Cyrus, an anointed person.

But here there is no qualification.

It simply says the anointed.

It says Mashiach.

That is the word Messiah.

There is no qualifier.

It can only be the Messiah.

Number two.

In Hebrew the adjective comes after the noun, not before it, like in English.

So if it says Mashiach Nagid, it doesn't mean the anointed prince.

It means the anointed Messiah who is also a prince or ruler.

Number three.

Rabbis try to argue that Daniel 9 is not about the Messiah.

But the thing is that, I mean number one, again the very word, this is the word Messiah.

It's not just talking about Messiah.

It's saying Mashiach.

And number four.

Daniel 9 is, is, is the absolute clearest prophecy of when Messiah is coming in the Hebrew scriptures.

Even the rabbis in their writings say it's about Messiah.

The ancient rabbis say this is about Messiah.

On top of it, what is the context?

The context is this coming of this one is going to bring about an end of sin, atone for iniquity, finish transgression, seal of vision and prophecy.

Who's going to do that?

It's not going to be Marty the fish salesman.

It's only the Messiah.

Who could do that?

It's clearly the Messiah.

On top of that there is an ancient translation of the Bible written by the rabbis before the New Testament called the Septuagint, where they took the Hebrew scriptures, put it in Greek.

And you know what they did with this?

When it comes to this it says, literally, it says until Christ comes, is what the rabbis wrote.

The word they wrote is Christos, is Christ.

So it's literally saying until Christ comes and then Christ will be cut off.

The ancient rabbis before the New Testament.

So it is clearly talking about the Messiah.

So what is it telling us?

I mean if, without knowing anything else, what is it telling you?

It's telling you this.

It says Messiah will come.

Messiah will be cut off.

And then what does it say?

It says then the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed.

What city?

Jerusalem.

Obviously.

That's what it's talking about.

And what's the sanctuary?

The temple.

So therefore Messiah will come.

Then the city Jerusalem and the sanctuary, the temple, will be destroyed.

So do we know if that happened?

Well it happened.

It happened in the year 70 AD.

The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

So what does that, what does that mean?

It means whoever the Messiah is, he had to have come before the date 70 AD.

No matter what.

Anybody who comes after that is disqualified.

And there have been many Jewish people who came up among the Jewish people and said we're the Messiah, after the fact they cannot be.

Do we know of anybody who came before the year 70 AD who came as Messiah and has a reasonable claim?

Is there anybody in Jewish history?

There's only one.

In all of Jewish history before the year 70 AD, actually after it just as well, but before the year there's only one contender.

There's no number two runner up.

There's only one.

And he happens to be known around the world as the Christ, which is the translation of Messiah.

Only one.

There's only one famous for dying for sins.

Daniel 9.

He'll be cut off.

He'll make an end of sin.

Matches up with Isaiah 53.

He will die for sin.

Could God, you put it all together.

Could God make this any clearer than that?

But then there are the 77's.

What are they?

Sometimes you'll hear it said the 70 weeks of Daniel.

The 77's.

Well the word is, it just in Hebrew says 77.

So we translate that as weeks or sevens.

Now what is it?

77's of what?

It's a time period clearly.

Is it 77's of days?

It can't be.

Because 77's of days would be 490 days.

And it's talking about, it's saying Jerusalem's going to be rebuilt.

The temple's going to be rebuilt.

It's all going to be, well you cannot do that in a year, less than a year and a half.

The context clearly is years.

And it's already there in the context.

How does Daniel begin it?

Daniel begins by saying, I was studying the words of the prophet Jeremiah.

And Jeremiah, it was revealed to him that the Jewish people would be in exile for how many?

Seventy years.

Seventy years.

Now why were they in exile for 70 years?

Why?

They were there for, I mean of course for judgment.

But why 70 years?

God says it.

He says they will be in exile for every Sabbath year they did not observe.

Now it's not, it's for many, you know, they were offering up their children as sacrifices.

But the timing is linked to the Sabbath year, the Shemitah.

So what it's saying here is this.

For every year that the land didn't rest.

Every seven years was a Sabbath year.

The land was supposed to rest.

So now the land is going to rest for all those 70 years, all those 70 Sabbaths.

While the people are going to be in exile.

So now, now, now concentrate. 70 years.

Those 70 years in, of exile, of the land resting represents how many years?

It's 70, 70 Sabbath years.

So it represents a period of how many years?

490 years that they didn't observe the Sabbath year.

So it comes up to 70 Sabbath years.

You get it?

Are you with me?

70, how do you do in math?

490 years they did not observe the Sabbath year.

So how many Sabbath years?

70 Sabbath years.

Do you get it now?

So it represents a period of 490 years where they, so it goes into, now becomes 70 years of judgment.

Now God is taking 70 years of judgment and he is now decompressing them that they're going to become 490 years to redemption.

You get it now?

You had, you had 490 years of sin.

They get compressed into 70 years of judgment.

Now the 70 years of Daniel are going to become 490 years to Messiah.

Okay?

Redemption.

All right.

Now, so he's clearly speaking of 77s of years. 490 years to go.

Okay.

Now this God is giving a prophetic countdown which no other faith ever does.

No other faith steps out.

It gives an exact countdown.

Now interesting, because the Bible says, because Daniel says that Gabriel appeared to me with this.

When?

He appeared to me it says at the time of the evening sacrifice.

Now there was, this is the interesting thing, is there was no sacrifice.

There was no temple.

So why that make a point?

There's something about that.

It says he came at the time of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sacrifice.

Interesting.

He still came at the set time.

Why?

Because the, the evening sacrifice was the final sacrifice of the day.

Final sacrifice.

And what is the prophecy going to be about?

The prophecy is going to be about the final sacrifice of Messiah.

So he does it at the time of the final sacrifice, even though there's no temple.

But there will be.

Gabriel.

Gabriel.

Gabriel.

Man of valor.

Angel.

Interesting thing.

Because he's the one who gives the countdown, God through him.

But it's amazing because when you open up the New Testament, guess who it is who's revealing that the countdown is going to be fulfilled?

Gabriel.

Same guy who gave the countdown is the one in the New Testament.

Opens it up when he gives a word to the priest, to the priest, Zechariah, that now it's about to get rolling because that countdown is going to be fulfilled.

Messiah is coming.

How cool.

How perfect.

He appears to Zechariah.

Zechariah, the priest, the father of John the Baptist.

Then he appears to whom?

Mary.

Miriam.