483 YEARS PLUS 7 YEARS OF TRIBULATION = 490 YEARS
Daniel 9:24 Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression,to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
In regards to prophecy verses 24-27 have to be at the very top of prophecy fulfilled and prophecy to be fulfilled. In this we see the long awaited fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to send someone through him that would bless the whole earth. We see the atonement for sin that would bring reconciliation with God. We see the building the third temple, and all this with promised dates to signal it will take place.
The angel Gabriel comes to explain to Daniel what he had been praying about. This was the forgiveness of Israel’s sins against God, and Israel’s return to Jerusalem and their Promised Land. Gabriel confirms Jeremiah’s prophecy of Israel’s return, and he also adds much more. Much of it I am sure that Daniel probably didn’t understand in its fulness, but like all the prophecy God gives him, Daniel believed it to true and it would happen just as God said. After 70 years the Jews were supposed to return to their Promised Land, but after only a few return after King Cyrus in 536 BC God increases their punishment of 70 years to 7 times greater. We see this practiced in
Lev 26:18. Now Israel would be under God’s punishment for 490 years. At the end of the 490 years the Jews would find forgiveness for their rebellion against God in their refusal to obey the Lord by worshiping idols and the rejection of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. On the 490th year Jesus will return to earth to reign for 1,000 years. What we must remember is that the 490 years will not be consecutive from the standpoint that there will be an undetermined amount of years until the last 7 years begin. The last 7 years will be called the years of tribulation due to the great sorrow that will come on the entire earth during that time.
Verse 25,26 begins to bring into clarity the coming of the Anointed One (Jesus), coming to earth. It says that there will be seven sevens and sixty- two sevens or 483 years. If you are doing your math this takes us just 7 years shy of Jesus’ return. The 7 years is the time of tribulation. From the time that there was a command to rebuild Jerusalem (445 BC) there were 483 years to the cutting off of the Messiah or Anointed One (Jesus). This was when Jesus went to the cross for us! Then it notes that the ruler of the people (Rome) will destroy the city and the sanctuary. This happened in 70 AD.
Verse 27 points to the 7 years of tribulation with the antichrist putting an end to offerings in the temple after 3 ½ years. It is interesting that the one that causes desolation will place abominations on a wing of the temple until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
We know that Ezekiel 43:1-5 & 44:1,2 & 47:1 tells us that the door of the temple faces the eastern gate. When this is lined up there is room on the temple mount to place the third temple beside the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It could be that these Islamic shrines are the abominations.
God has given us reason to hope and insight to beware, so that we are not deceived. It is up to us to know God’s prophecies and look for them.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help us to be alert and not be deceived. Please keep us from the antichrist, the false prophet and the time of great tribulation. We ask this in Jesus name.
