Verse of the Week: Daniel 9:26
The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was the
decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War, in which
the Roman army captured the city of Jerusalem and destroyed
both the city and its Temple. The Roman army, led by the future
Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his
second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had
been controlled by Judean rebel factions since 66 AD, following
the Jerusalem riots of 66, when the Judean provisional
government was formed in Jerusalem.
The siege of the city began on 14 April 70 AD, three days
before the beginning of Passover that year. The siege lasted for about four
months; it ended in August 70 AD on Tisha B'Av with the burning and
destruction of the Second Temple. The Romans then entered and sacked
the Lower City. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem
and the Temple, still stands in Rome. The conquest of the city was
complete on approximately 8 September 70 AD.
Josephus places the siege in the second year
of Vespasian, which corresponds to the year 70 AD.[1]
“Then after the sixty-two weeks
the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who
is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with
a flood; even the end there will be war; desolations are determined. Daniel
9:26
After sixty-two weeks- From the completion of the
construction of Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah would be sixty-two weeks,
or four hundred and thirty-four years. Altogether, from the signing of the
decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes on March 14, 1445 BC, to the Messiah
would be four hundred and eighty-three years.
Plus
the first seven weeks, for a total of 69 weeks important events were to occur.
The events recorded here takes place after the crucifixion of Christ. The two
most important events to occur after the 69 weeks were:
1.
The Messiah was to be cut off (crucified), and
2.
The city of Jerusalem and the Temple were to be
destroyed.
These events were to occur between
the 69th week and the 70th week.
Messiah will be cut off- The crucifixion of the
Messiah. Within a few days after the people had shouted, “Hosanna,” they shouted,
“Crucify Him!” and in response to their shouts the religious leaders and the
people crucified the King. The adulation of the crowd at the triumphal entry
and the devotion of those who had been touched by His previous ministry was to
no avail. The unbelief of Israel and the calloused indifference of religious
leaders when confronted with the claims of Christ combined with the hardness of
the heart of Gentile rulers to make the greatest of tragedies. Thus, the cutting
off of the Messiah happened after the 69 weeks. We read in Isaiah:
By oppression
and judgment He was taken away;
And
as for His generation, who considered
That
He was cut off out of the land of the living,
For
the transgression of My people to whom the stroke was due?
Isaiah 53:8
Christ
was not only “cut off” from man and from life, but in His cry on the cross it is
indicated that He was forsaken of God for a short time while the sins of the
world was placed upon Him. The plaintive cry of “My God, My God, why has Thou
forsaken Me?” reveals not only the awfulness of separation from God but points
also the answer- the redemptive purpose.
Have nothing- (Heb. weenlo) This Hebrew word means
“nothing” or “no one.” The phrase has been interpreted as:
1.
The destruction of Jerusalem
2.
It was not for His own sins that He was cut off,
but the sins of others.
3.
He shall have no kingdom as of yet. Nothing that
rightly belonged to Him as Messiah the Prince was given Him at that time. He
had not come into His full reward nor the exercise of His regal authority.
Looking at the circumstances through human eyes, it would appear that evil won.
4.
He will be bereft of followers, all of them will
fell from Him at the time of His arrest, trial, and death. Only if the meaning
of the word is “no one.”
5.
It suggests that He will die without any
material wealth or resources if the meaning of the word means “nothing.”
From my studies #3 is the best
explanation for this passage.
People of the prince who is to come- The destruction
of the temple was done by the Romans in 70 AD. Titus, the Roman general, destroyed
the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. This occurred some 38 years after the end
of the end of the 69th week.
Carefully
note the wording of this prophecy. The people of the prince, not the
prince himself, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Josephus, who was a
captive of the Roman army besieging Jerusalem, wrote that after the death of
Nero, General Galba was recalled to be made emperor.
Figure 1Galba
But a conspiracy that opposed him developed and the general
was assassinated. After Galba, Otho was made emperor, but he was not capable of
ruling; and like Nero, he committed suicide. There followed a period of
revolution and political instability. Finally, the general in command of the
Roman-Israeli expedition was recalled restoring order and become emperor. This man
was General Vespasian, the father of Capatian Titus.
Figure 2Vespasian
When Vespasian left for Rome, he made his son Titus general, and left him in charge of the siege. Just a few days before the assault on Jerusalem, Vespasian was crowned emperor of the Roman Empire, making Titus a prince. Therefore, the army which destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple was committed by a prince.
Figure 3Titus
Since
these events were to occur after the 69 weeks had run their course and before
the 70th week began, there must be a space of time between
conclusion of the sixty-ninth week and the beginning of the seventieth.
Some
have erroneously attributed that the prince is Christ. If this is true, then
Christians must have destroyed the city and the sanctuary. There were very few,
if any, Christians in Jerusalem at the time of its destruction. In fact, the
Christians, heeded the warnings of Jesus in Luke:
20 “But when you see Jerusalem
surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand.
21 “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city; Luke 21:20, 21
They
fled the city during a temporary withdrawal of the hostile army and reached the
mountains of Pella.
Destroy the city- After the Messiah was crucified,
the city and the Temple were destroyed. In the forty years in the wilderness,
Israel only spent two years going to the Promised Land. But because of
unbelief, they spent thirty-eight years in the desert until all that generation
died, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. Thirty-eight years after Jesus
was crucified, the city and the Temple were destroyed. Not even one stone was
left upon another as Christ had predicted:
And He answered and said to them,
“Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone will be
left upon another, which will not be torn down.” Matthew 24:2
And the sanctuary- Titus attempted to spare what was
left of the city and the Temple. For some unexplained reason, as recorded by
Josephus, the well-trained and disciplined army went berserk, pillaged and
burned the city and the Temple. Titus personally intervened at the Temple to
save it, but the soldiers, according to Josephus, were seized by a “divine
urge” and refused to heed t the hand sings of Titus or his voice. Thus,
Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the people of the prince.
It is
said that a torch was thrown into the Temple igniting the curtain and the oil.
The flames melted the gold objects and the melted gold ran down into the
openings between the building stones. In an effort to get to the gold soldiers
tore down the Temple, brick by brick. Thus, fulfilling the words of Christ.
with a flood- This is used to denote warlike hosts
who annihilate their enemies in Daniel. This seems to be a general reference to
the fact that from the time of destruction of the city of Jerusalem, trouble,
war, and desolation will be the normal experience of the people of Israel and
will end only at the consummation of history. History has demonstrated more
than once that this is true.
Next week Daniel 9:27
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