God not only informed
us ahead of time about Jesus being born
to a virgin and the place of his
birth (Bethlehem) but the bible also gives us the time of the coming of the Messiah. This prophecy would not so
much be fulfilled at the Messiah’s birth but rather at the time of his official recognition
by the nation of Israel. It tells of his subsequent death as it says he would
be “cut off” which speaks of his crucifixion. It tells us that there would be
483 years from the time that a command would be given to restore and rebuild
the city of Jerusalem until the Messiah. It also foretells of the destruction
of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans.
Know therefore and
understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary…[i]
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary…[i]
This is the prophecy of
Daniel’s seventy weeks. These are not weeks of days but rather of years. The
final week is yet future so this is focusing upon the first 69 weeks which is
equal to 483 years. The first week would be fulfilled in the completion of the building
of the walls of Jerusalem. The full 69 weeks or 483 years would be fulfilled at
the time of the Messiah. The final week or seven years are coming in the
future.
There is no place that I
know of in the bible which tells us how long the Messiah would live. So, even
though the time of his recognition as King would be exact, the time of his
birth would only be approximate.
For our purposes, there is
not enough time to show exactly how all of this was fulfilled; but we can say
that the beginning of a period of 483 years until the time of the coming of
Jesus into the world does certainly correspond to the time of a command that
went out from King Artaxerxes of Persia to rebuild Jerusalem. Nehemiah wrote:
Moreover
I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the
governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into
Judah; And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may
give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to
the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter
into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.[ii]
Other similar decrees went
out around the same time but this is the only one which authorized the
rebuilding of the city itself.
This decree of Artaxerxes
went out in the year 445 BC. The Jews months all had thirty days so we must account
for an adjustment of about five days per year. Sir Walter Scott wrote a book on
this called The Coming Prince. In it, he calculated 483 years X 360
days. According to Scott, this was fulfilled on the very day Jesus rode triumphally
into Jerusalem.[iii]
Perhaps the knowledge of this is one reason
why an old man, named Simeon, who was at the Temple as the baby Jesus was being dedicated, had been looking for the Messiah.
And
it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death,
before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Simeon takes the little one into his arms and prays saying, "My eyes have seen your salvation."
Is this the reason why the
wise men from the east asked “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we
have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”[iv] How is it they knew what
this star meant? Was it because of Daniel’s prophecy? They came from the same area
where Daniel lived (Babylon/Persia) and from where Daniel wrote the book that
bears his name.
Although this prophecy from
the book of Daniel does not give us the exact time of Jesus’ birth, those who
would have been familiar with it would have known that he was coming and the approximate time of his arrival.
What can we learn from the
fact that God’s prophets foretold the lineage of the Messiah, that he would be born of a virgin,
that he would come out of Bethlehem, and the timing of his coming? The most
important thing we learn is this:
The Lord Jesus is truly our Messiah!
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