“Seventy weeks are
decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to
put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy
place. Know therefore and understand
that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the
coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built
again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks an anointed one
shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and
the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a
flood, and to the end there shall be war.
And he shall make a strong covenant with many, for one week, and for
half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come
one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolate.”
–Daniel 9: 25-27 (ESV).
Many scholars have tried to interpret
the time frame intended by Daniel’s “seventy weeks” and multiples of seven
weeks. The mention of “abominations”
in Daniel 9:27 has come to be called
“the abomination of desolation.” Charts
and time tables are available that seek to show various times in history when
the events spoken of by Daniel transpired—using a reckoning of a perfectly-held
number, seven, as the basis for the calculations and the matching-up of events
with his prophecy. The intent of this
short devotional is not to argue with which interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy
is right. We reckon time in finite days,
weeks, years, decades, centuries. It is
hard for us to conceive of God’s time table which is infinite and beyond
measure. But we can be assured that “in
the fullness of time,” there cane “an
anointed one”—as Daniel predicted.
He did, indeed, “make a strong
covenant with the people,” and that covenant cost Him His life. It became the New Covenant, written in His
blood, that those who come to Him in faith, believing, can have restoration
with God and salvation.
Paul the Apostle in writing to the
Christian churches in Galatia, gave immeasurable insight into the time of Christ’s birth. “In the
fullness of time” has become a way of summarizing not only Daniel’s
forthtelling of Christ’s coming, but of all we know, with the event being past
history to us living beyond the time of that blessed event. Paul wrote: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as sons. And
because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,
crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no
longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians
4:4-7, ESV). The time of His coming
was God-ordained. At no other time in
the history of mankind was it more the time for such an astounding appearance
of One sent from God with a defined mission.
Pax Romana, a strong rulership
of an empire far-flung in nature, had set the stage for the time being
right. Even though it is hard for us to
understand Daniel’s numbers and his reckoning of time, we know assuredly that
God was (and is) in control of the “seven times seven and seventy times
seven”—all the perfect reckonings of times—to bring Christ to earth. Likewise, God’s timetable will work in bringing
to an end the dispensation of this age and the second coming of the King of
Kings. Our task is not to understand as
much as to trust and be ready. Like the
lowly shepherds on that Bethlehem hill long ago, our happy privilege is to find
and follow the King and to make known abroad that He has indeed come, “in the fullness of time.”
Prayer.
Lord, thank you that Jesus came ‘in the fullness of time.’ Let us pledge our faithfulness until, in the
fullness of time, He returns to claim His own among all the peoples of the
earth! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment