When will the Messiah come?

Daniel 9:24-27 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. [25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. [26] And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. [27] And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Gal. 1:3-5; Lu. 1:35; Jn. 12:12-13; Mt. 27:35; Heb. 2:9; Mt. 27:50-51).

*[The Prince is God in the flesh according to Isaiah 9:6].

What is this prophecy in Daniel saying?

This prophecy in Daniel was supposed to tell us the exact arrival of the Messiah upon the earth. The life of Jesus is in pinpoint accuracy of this prophecy.

Daniel was studying the Book of Jeremiah one day, and He discovered that Jeremiah had foretold in his book that after 70 years in captivity at Babylon, the Jews were to be set free to return home.

Daniel was excited and began to pray that God would do what He had promised-let the Jews go back to Jerusalem. Daniel confessed his sins and the sins of his people and asked God to move on their behalf and set them free.

As Daniel was speaking to God in prayer, the angel Gabriel came,

"and he informed me, and talked with me, and said, 'O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand ... for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision." Daniel 9:22, 23.

Gabriel told Daniel that 70 weeks were determined upon his people. Why? "For your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression; to make an end of sins; to make reconciliation for iniquity; to bring in everlasting righteousness; seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." Daniel 9:24.

As we look at this 70 weeks, we must ask, "Were they 70 weeks of days or 70 weeks of years?" In Bible prophecy, a prophetic day stands for a literal year!

We find in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. KJV "I have appointed thee each day for a year."

Gabriel went on with the prophecy: "Know and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." Daniel 9:25, 26.

This prophecy, foretelling the exact time of Christ's coming and baptism, provides one of the most decisive evidences that Christ was sent of God, that He was the real Messiah.

Now, follow carefully as we do a little math. Seventy weeks in prophetic time would be 490 years. The decree of King Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem was issued in the year 457 B.C.

Adding 483 years (69 weeks) from Artaxerxes' decree brings us to A.D. 27.

On A.D. 27 Christ came to John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan River.

Now, follow closely: Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek both mean "the Anointed One." When was Jesus anointed? Luke pinpoints the very year! "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar." Luke 3:1

"When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Luke 3:21, 22.

Jesus was anointed by the Holy Ghost at His baptism in the Jordan River. Paul states: "...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost." Acts 10:38.

Now we'll do a little more math. Tiberius Caesar began to reign in A.D. 12. Luke said Jesus was baptized in the fifteenth year of Tiberius' rule, which brings us to A.D. 27, fulfilling the 483-year prophecy to the letter and proving that Jesus was indeed who He claimed to be!

The last part of the prophecy stated that the Messiah would die in the middle of the 70th week of this prophecy: "And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease." Daniel 9:27.

That prophecy was also fulfilled exactly. Jesus died on the cross on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month in the year A.D. 31.

Mark records what took place in the temple at the moment of His death: "And the veil in the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." Mark 15:38.

This indicated that the Israelites no longer needed sacrifices to show their faith in a coming Saviour, for the Messiah, the true sacrificial Lamb, had been slain that day on Calvary!

The sacrificial offerings and oblations were to cease. The apostle Paul studied these Old Testament prophecies, and as he gathered evidence from eyewitnesses of the events surrounding the life and death of Christ, he wrote to his young protégé, Timothy, that Christ was more than a mere man. He declared, "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory." 1 Timothy 3:16.

This prophecy, united with the time of the Passover feast, predicted the exact hour, day, and year that Christ the Passover Lamb would die.

No other person could have fulfilled this time prophecy that pinpointed when the Messiah would come and what He would do to fulfill all of these things. Jesus was crucified at the time when the Passover lamb was slain three o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th day of the first month in A.D. 31. But not just the time prophecies of Daniel cause us to know that Christ was the true Lamb of God-the promised Messiah.

When Jesus met two disciples on the road to Emmaus on that fateful Sunday night after His resurrection.

He took the Bible and gave them a study on the prophecies that had been fulfilled in the last few days connected to His life.

He said: "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!... And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:25,27.