Daniel 9:24 says:
Seventy "sevens" are decreed for
your people and your holy city... (NIV)
|
The
Lord has
appointed 70 "weeks" for your
people and your
holy city... (NIrV)
|
God
has
ordered 490 years for your
people and
your holy city... (NCV)
|
The Since the time of Moses, the Jewish agricultural calendar ran in
seven-year cycles... or at least it should have been in seven-year
cycles.
Leviticus
25:1-7; 20-22 (NCV)
The LORD said to Moses at
Mount Sinai, "Tell the people of Israel this: 'When you
enter the land I will give you, let it have a special time of rest, to
honor the LORD. You may plant seed in your field
for six years, and you may trim your vineyards for six years and bring
in their fruits. But during the
seventh year, you must let the land rest. This will be a special
time to honor the LORD. You
must not plant seed in your field or trim your vineyards. You
must not cut the crops that grow by themselves after harvest, or gather
the grapes from your vines that are not trimmed. The land will have a
year of rest.
" 'You may eat whatever the land produces during that year of
rest. It will be food for your men and women servants, for your hired
workers, and for the foreigners living in your country. It will
also be food for your cattle and the wild animals of your land.
Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
" 'But you might ask, "If we don’t plant seeds
or gather crops, what will we eat the seventh year?” I will send
you such a great blessing during the sixth year that the land will
produce enough crops for three years. When you plant in the
eighth year, you will still be eating from the old crop; you will eat
the old crop until the harvest of the ninth year.' "
Some farmers today follow this principle of giving land rest by letting
part of their field lay "fallow" for a year. Other famers
practice crop rotation.
Did Israel's farmers really obey this law? No, not for
490 years, since time before King Saul - Israel's first king. So
when God sent Israel to Babylon for their continual faithlessness,
idolotry, and sinful practices, He set the time for them to stay there
equal to the number of years they neglected to give the farmland
rest: 490 ÷ 7 = 70 years.
2
Chronicles 36:20,21 (NCV)
Nebuchadnezzar took captive to Babylon the people who were left alive,
and he forced them to be slaves for him and his descendants. They
remained there as slaves until the Persian kingdom defeated
Babylon. And so what the LORD had told
Israel through the prophet Jeremiah happened: The country was an empty wasteland for
seventy years to make up for the years of Sabbath rest that the people
had not kept.
Now notice that in God's answer to Daniel's prayer, He said that Israel
would become rebuilt and restored for another 490 years, counted in
seven year cycles (70 x 7), until the final destruction of the city
under the Romans - in the New Testament period.
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