CHAPTER VII.
THE MYSTIC ERA OF THE WEEKS
THE conclusions arrived at in the preceding chapter suggest a striking
parallel between Daniel's earlier visions and the prophecy of the seventy weeks.
History contains no record of events to satisfy the predicted course of the
seventieth week. The Apocalypse was not even written when that period ought
chronologically to have closed, and though eighteen centuries have since
elapsed, the restoration of the Jews seems still but a chimera of sanguine
fanatics. And be it remembered that the purpose of the prophecy was not to amuse
or interest the curious. Of necessity some mysticism must characterize prophetic
utterances, otherwise they might be "fulfilled to order" by designing men; but
once the prophecy comes side by side with the events of which it speaks, it
fails of one of its chief purposes if its relation to them be doubtful. If any
one will learn the connection between prophecy and its fulfillment, let him read
the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and compare it with the story of the Passion:
so vague and figurative that no one could have acted out the drama it foretold;
but yet so definite and clear that, once fulfilled, the simplest child can
recognize its scope and meaning. If then the event which constitutes the epoch
of the seventieth week must be as pronounced and certain as Nehemiah's
commission and Messiah's death, it is of necessity still future.
And this is precisely what the study of the seventh chapter of Daniel will have
led us to expect. All Christian interpreters are agreed that between the rise of
the fourth beast and the growth of the ten horns there is a gap or parenthesis
in the vision; and, as already shown, that gap includes the entire period
between the time of Christ and the division of the Roman earth into the ten
kingdoms out of which the great persecutor of the future is to arise. This
period, moreover, is admittedly unnoticed also in the other visions of the book.
There is therefore a strong a priori probability that it would be
overlooked in the vision of the ninth chapter.
More than this, there is not only the same reason for this mystic foreshortening
in the vision of the seventy weeks, as in the other visions,
[1]
but that reason applies here with special force. The seventy weeks were
meted out as the period during which Judah's blessings were deferred. In common
with all prophecy, the meaning of this prophecy will be unmistakable when its
ultimate fulfillment takes place, but it was necessarily conveyed in a mystical
form in order to shut up the Jews to the responsibility of accepting their
Messiah. St. Peter's inspired proclamation to the nation at Jerusalem, recorded
in the third chapter of Acts, was in accordance with this. The Jews looked
merely for a return of their national supremacy, but God's first purpose was
redemption through the death of the great Sin-bearer. Now, the sacrifice had
been accomplished, and St. Peter pointed to Calvary as the fulfillment of that
"which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets;" and he added
this testimony, "Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that
your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from
the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ, who hath been
appointed for you, even Jesus." (Acts 3:19, 20, R.V.) The realization of
these blessings would have been the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, and the
seventieth week might have run its course without a break. But Judah proved
impenitent and obdurate, and the promised blessings were once again postponed
till the close of this strange era of the Gentile dispensation.
But it may be asked, Was not the Cross of Christ the fulfillment of these
blessings? A careful study of the Angel's words (Daniel 9:24) will show that not
so much as one of them has been thus accomplished. The sixty-ninth week was to
end with Messiah's death; the close of the seventieth week was to bring to Judah
the full enjoyment of the blessings resulting from that death. Judah's
transgression has yet to be restrained, and his sins to be sealed up. The day is
yet future when a fountain shall be opened for the iniquity of Daniel's people,
(Zechariah 13:1) and righteousness shall be ushered in for them. In what sense
were vision and prophet sealed up at the death of Christ, considering that the
greatest of all visions was yet to be given, (The Revelation.) and the days were
still to come when the words of the prophets were to be fulfilled? (Luke 21:22)
And whatever meaning is to be put upon "anointing the most holy," it is clear
that Calvary was not the accomplishment of it. [2]
But is it consistent with fair argument or common-sense to urge that an
era thus chronologically defined should be indefinitely interrupted in its
course? The ready answer might be given, that if common-sense and fairness — if
human judgment, is to decide the question, the only doubt must be whether the
final period of the cycle, and the blessings promised at its close, be not for
ever abrogated and lost by reason of the appalling guilt of that people who
"killed the Prince of life." (Acts 3:15) There exists surely no presumption
against supposing that the stream of prophetic time is tided back during all
this interval of the apostasy of Judah. The question remains, whether any
precedent for this can be discovered in the mystical chronology of Israel's
history.
According to the book of Kings, Solomon began to build the temple in the 480th
year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt. (1 Kings
6:1) This statement, than which none could, seemingly, be more exact, has sorely
puzzled chronologers. By some it has been condemned as a forgery, by others it
has been dismissed as a blunder; but all have agreed in rejecting it. Moreover,
Scripture itself appears to clash with it. In his sermon at Pisidian Antioch
(Acts 13:18-21) St. Paul epitomizes thus the chronology of this period of the
history of his nation: forty years in the wilderness; 450 years under the
judges, and forty years of the reign of Saul; making a total of 530 years. To
which must be added the forty years of David's reign and the first three years
of Solomon's; making 573 years for the very period which is described in Kings
as 480 years. Can these conclusions, apparently so inconsistent, be reconciled?
[3]
If we follow the history of Israel as detailed in the book of Judges, we
shall find that for five several periods their national existence as Jehovah's
people was in abeyance. In punishment for their idolatry, God gave them up again
and again, and "sold them into the hands of their enemies." They became slaves
to the king of Mesopotamia for eight years, to the king of Moab for eighteen
years, to the king of Canaan for twenty years, to the Midianites for seven
years, and finally to the Philistines for forty years.
[4]
But the sum of 8 +18+ 20+ 7+ 40 years is 93 years, and if 93 years be
deducted from 573 years, the result is 480 years. It is obvious, therefore, that
the 480 years of the book of Kings from the Exodus to the temple is a mystic era
formed by eliminating every period during which the people were cast off by God.
[5]
If, then, this principle were intelligible to the Jew in regard to
history, it was both natural and legitimate to introduce it in respect of an
essentially mystic era like that of the seventy weeks.
But this conclusion does not depend upon argument however sound, or inference
however just. It is indisputably proved by the testimony of Christ Himself.
"What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" the
disciples inquired as they gathered round the Lord on one of the last days of
His ministry on earth. (Matthew 24:3) In reply he spoke of the tribulation
foretold by Daniel, [6]
and warned them that the signal of that fearful persecution was to be the
precise event which marks the middle of the seventieth week, namely, the
defilement of the holy place by the "abomination of desolation," — some image of
himself probably, which the false prince will set up in the temple in violation
of his treaty obligations to respect and defend the religion of the Jews
[7]
That this prophecy was not fulfilled by Titus is as certain as history
can make it; [8]
but Scripture itself leaves no doubt whatever on the point.
It appears from the passages already quoted, that the predicted tribulation is
to last three and a half years, and to date from the violation of the treaty in
the middle of the seventieth week. What is to follow is thus described by the
Lord Himself in words of peculiar solemnity: "Immediately after the tribulation
of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be
shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:29) That
it is to the closing scenes of the dispensation this prophecy relates is here
assumed. [9]
And as these scenes are to follow immediately after a persecution,
of which the era is within the seventieth week, the inference is incontestable
that the events of that week belong to a time still future.
[10]
We may conclude, then, that when wicked hands set up the cross on
Calvary, and God pronounced the dread "Lo-ammi" (Romans 9:25, 26; cf.
Hosea 1:9, 10) upon His people, the course of the prophetic era ceased to run.
Nor will it flow on again till the autonomy of Judah is restored; and, with
obvious propriety, that is held to date from the moment their readmission into
the family of nations is recognized by treaty. [11]
It will, therefore, be here assumed that the former portion of the
prophetic era has run its course, but that the events of the last seven years
have still to be accomplished. The last point, therefore, necessary to complete
the chain of proof is to ascertain the date of "Messiah the Prince."