Daniel 9
70 x 7
Daniel 9:24 says:
NIV |
NIrV |
NCV |
Seventy "sevens" are decreed for your people and your holy city... |
The Lord has appointed 70 "weeks" for your people and your holy city... |
God has ordered 490 years for your people and your holy city... |
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 farmers 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, idolatry, 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.
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, idolatry, 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.