The moral beauty of Daniel's prayer, recorded in ch. 9:1-19 of the book that bears his name, begets admiration and spiritual pleasure in the heart of every lover of God and His Word. But this article concerns itself only with what he prayed for and the answer thereto.

In verses 2, 7, 12, 16, 18 and 19, the burden of his prayer is unfolded to us, while verses 24-27 give the answer of God to his burdened soul. His prayer concerned the sanctuary (vers. 17), the city, and the people of God (vers. 18,19). The answer (vers. 24-27) gives assurance that the sanctuary, the city and the people will be blessed of God. That answer was:Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to:

1. Finish transgressions,
2. Make an end of sins,
3. Make reconciliation for iniquity,
4. Bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. Seal up vision and prophecy,
6. Anoint the most Holy.

Have all or any of these things taken place? All of them are in immediate and distinct relation to the Jew and Jerusalem. Has the transgression of Daniel's people and city been finished? Has an end been brought to the sins of that people and city? Has reconciliation been made for their iniquity? Has everlasting righteousness been brought in for them?

It is not the work of- Christ on the cross that is here before us, but the application of that work to Daniel's people and city. When this takes place then vision and prophecy will cease and the sanctuary will be anointed. When we realize that there is no blessing for a Jew, as a Jew, today-for when a Jew today believes on the Lord Jesus he becomes a member of the Body of Christ in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile-and when we place this truth alongside of the fact that the blessings enumerated in Daniel 9:24 in answer to his prayer are emphatically and distinctly for the Jew, as a Jew, and for his Holy City-Jerusalem (Christians have no holy city), we cannot escape the conclusion that their fulfilment is future to this present age. Alas! The awful prayer of the Jew:"His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. 27:25), is that which finds its answer in the predicted destruction of city and sanctuary, in wars and desolations, which shall continue to the end – of the seventy weeks. That the destruction of the city and the sanctuary took place after the sixty-ninth week, and that the decreed wars and desolations run through not only the intervening time between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks but through the seventieth week also, is clear from the reading of verses 26 and 27. If, then, the blessings decreed upon Daniel's people and city take place after the seventieth week has run to its close, it is again evident, with the plainly indicated break between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week before us, that these blessings for that people and city are still future.

We are not now concerned with the chronological details of the prophecy. For our present purpose we need not consider the date when the seventy weeks began. The statement is plain that seventy weeks must run their course before the promised blessings could come to Daniel's people and city (ver. 24). It is equally plain that it is after the sixty-ninth week that Messiah would be cut off and have nothing. We are thus brought, at the close of the sixty-ninth week, to the death of Christ (vers. 24, 25, and first part of ver. 26). From the second part of verse 26 to the end of verse 27 we read:"And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary:and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end war, the desolations determined" (See Isa. 10:22,23). "And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations (idols) there shall be a desolator, even until the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate" (J. N. D.). Why the people of the prince that shall come? Why not the "prince that shall come" if Titus were in view? Does not the language used, "the prince that shall come," indicate one previously spoken of?

In chap. 7 one is brought before us whose kingdom is taken away in order to the setting up of the kingdom of the Son of Man (vers. 14,26,27), of whom it is said:"And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change seasons (appointed times) and the law, and they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time" (J. N. D.). (For the meaning of the expression, "Time and times and half a time," compare Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6,14; 13:5, and there will be no doubt as to it denoting three years and a half.). Have we not here that which answers to what takes place during the last half of the seventieth week? "The prince that shall come" breaks the covenant with the mass of the Jews, forbidding further sacrifice and oblation (9:27. In chap. 7:25 the Jewish appointed times and the law are given into the hand of the head of the revived Roman Empire for a time similar in duration to half a week. It seems, therefore, a right deduction that "the prince that shall come" of Dan. 9:26 and the head of the revived Roman Empire (7:25) are one and the same person.

That the fourth, or Roman, Empire will be in existence when the Son of Man comes to set up His kingdom is most certainly taught in Dan., chs. 2 and 7. Then will the head of that empire, the "prince that shall come," receive his judgment at the hand of the Son of Man (Dan. 2:40-45; 7:11,26,27; Rev. 19:11-21). We therefore look for the re-appearance of the Roman Empire in the future.

But why was the seven-year covenant entered into by the many-the mass of the Jews? Why this compact with the "prince that shall come," the "Beast," or head of the revived Roman Empire? Does not Isa. 28:14, 15 supply the answer? "Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem, Because ye have said:We have made a covenant with death and with Sheol we are at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." Jehovah's answer to this is:"Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand:when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden by it" (ver. 18). Fear of the "overflowing scourge" or "king of the north" is evidently what induces the mass of the Jews to enter into this covenant. The "overflowing scourge" or "king of the north" is set before us in Dan. 11:40-45, as entering, on his career of conquest, into the "glorious land."

Where in history do we find that which answers to the terms of the prophecy of the seventy weeks, Dan. 9:24-27? Where in history do we find that which answers to Dan. 2:40-45; 7:11,26,27? How far wide of the mark it is to make the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus the fulfilment of Jewish blessing (9:24), or the setting up of the kingdom of the Son of Man (Dan. 2:40-45; 7:11,26,27; Matt. 25:31-46).

The Jew and Jerusalem await the coming of the Son of Man to bring to an end both the glory (Dan. 2) and the brute power (Dan. 7) of Gentile empire (see Rev. 19:11-21).Then, and not until then, will Daniel's people and city come into their promised blessings. As it is written:"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications:and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day there shall be a Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" (Zech. 12:9, 10; 13:1). "And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." That the present age was not made known in past times is clearly taught in the New Testament Scriptures. See Rom.16:25,26; Eph.3:1-11; Col. 1:24-27.Moreover in Dan. 12:1 there is predicted a time of trouble "such as had never been since there was a nation." In verse 7 the duration of this time of trouble, is specified as a time, times, and half a time, that is, three and a half years, or twelve hundred and sixty days. In vers. 11 and 12 we read:"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15) there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." The setting up of the "abomination that maketh desolate" marks the beginning of the great tribulation (Dan. 11:2; 12:13,14; 13:5-7). To this there are thirty days added (Dan. 12:11), and again forty-five days more are added. At the end of this last period, thirteen hundred and thirty-five days after the abomination that maketh. desolate is set up the blessing comes (Dan. 12:12). By what method of reckoning time, by literal days or otherwise, can it be shown that the Jew came into blessing thirteen hundred and thirty-five days after Titus destroyed Jerusalem?