Diving In Session 4 Covenant 7 The Davidic Covenant part 3

The Scope and Goal of Fulfilment – the restoration of God’s Rule over the Earth

We considered what this means for Israel last week but we get the clearest picture of the Messianic Era in Isa. 11:1-12:6; 19:23-25; 25:6-9 – this is the goal as seen in the OT.

We emphasized the ultimate goal of restoring God’s rule over the earth, a concept we referred to as the Messianic era or millennium. We also highlighted the distinction between the millennium and the eternal state, with the former being a 1,000-year period of Christ’s rule on earth before the latter. We noted that the concept of a millennial reign of Christ has been under attack in the Church, with some believing that the Church has replaced Israel. The Millennium has been under attack since the 3^rd Century when Platonic Dualism infected the Church’s theology. We discussed the impact of this on the fulfilment of the Davidic government and its scope, and an examined the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and land covenants.

Read Isa. 11:1-12; 12:1-6

• V.1-3 The First Coming – the Branch from the stump of Jesse
  • The Spirit of the Lord resting on Him (Isa. 9:6)
  • The Fear of the Lord guiding Him (John 5:30)
• V.10-12 The Second Coming – the Root of Jesse (Rev. 5:5; 22:16)
  • A banner for the nations (Isa. 9:7)
  • The re-gatherer of Israel (Ezek. 37:21-28)
• V.4-9 The Millennial Reign (Isa. 32:17; Acts 3:19-21)
  • Righteousness (Matt. 19:28 Israel; 25:31 Nations)
  • Peace – Shalom! (Psa. 72)
• Ch. 12 The LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation – for great among you is the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 25:6-9; Psa. 118:14,24)

We asked whether this is this just “Jewish carnal hopes” (condemned by the 16^th cent. divines of the CofE!) or if it had deeper theological significance. We focussed on the concept of the millennium and its relevance to the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants. The conversation also touched on the expectation of an earthly kingdom among the Jews. The discussion then transitioned to a detailed examination of the fulfilment of these prophecies in the book of Daniel.

But how is this to be fulfilled and when? We looked into Daniel 9:24-27 to see if we can get some clues, and compare that with the Olivet Discourse given by the Lord Jesus in Matt. 24/Luke 21 (we’ve been here before when we looked the Times of the Gentiles which, as we’ll see, has a great bearing on our topic for this week).

The Timing of Fulfilment

Read Dan. 9:24-27

Let’s note the Purpose, the People, the Place, the Process, and then the Timing

Firstly, the purpose

• Foundational (and Future as well)
  • to finish the transgression,                              }
  • and to make an end of sins,                            } First Coming
  • and to make atonement for iniquity,               }
• Future
  • and to bring in everlasting righteousness,       }
  • and to seal up the vision and prophecy,         } Second Coming
  • and to anoint the Most Holy.                         }

Then the people mentioned:

• v. 24 your people – the context is Israel
• v. 25 ‘Messiah, the Prince’
• v. 26a Messiah (can be translated ‘an anointed one’ as per the JPS, but so can every other instance of Messiah in the OT!)
• v. 26b A prince who is to come
• v. 26b The people of the said prince
• v. 27 ‘He’ –Messiah or the Coming Prince?

Then the place

• v. 24 your holy city
• v. 25a Jerusalem
• v. 25b the street and the wall
• v. 26 the city and the sanctuary

This locates the fulfilment of this prophecy to Jerusalem and nowhere else! It also locates it within the walls of Jerusalem, with a focus on the sanctuary – the Temple.

Then the process

• v. 25a A commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem (made by someone with the authority to give such a commandment – could be a divine commandment but that couldn’t be a sign as no one would know when and how it was made) – note NOT the Temple
• v. 25b The street and the wall (NB not the sanctuary) built again in a time of constraint and distress
• v. 26a Messiah is ’cut off’ i.e. killed; ‘but not for Himself’ or ‘shall have nothing’
• v. 26b the city and the sanctuary are destroyed by the people of the coming prince
• v. 26c a flood (or overflowing), wars and desolations are determined (predicted) ‘unto the end’ (of what? The time until the covenant of the next verse is made?)
• v. 27a A 7 year covenant (with death Isa. 28:15,18?) is made between ‘he’ and ‘the many’ (Est. 4:3 the Jews; Dan. 11:33 those that know their God)
• v. 27b In the middle of the week, ‘he’ causes the sacrifices to cease (for them to be being offered, there must be a temple, but that had been destroyed in v. 26b, so another must have been constructed – part of the covenant of this verse?)
• v. 27c overflowing abominations and desolations follow ‘until the consummation’

Finally the timing

v.24-25         Seventy ‘sevens’, understood as years.

History of Israel runs in 490 year cycles – The Patriarchal period, The Tabernacle period (1 Kin 6), the First Temple period (2 Chron. 36:21 which predicts a 70 year hiatus of Sabbath years, implying that the Sabbath year regulations had not been observed for 490 years).

Daniel understood that the 70 years was just coming to an end (Dan. 9:2) and is given a vision regarding another 490 year period comprising 69 sevens upto the (first) coming of Messiah, split into seven sevens (49 years) and 62 sevens (434 years), giving a total of 483 years, and a final 7 years which seem, with hindsight, to stand separately from the rest.

When do the 70 ‘sevens’ start? v. 25 the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Four decrees were issued by various Persian emperors concerning Israel:

4 is the correct starting point because Daniel 9 refers to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and to the “street” and the “wall”, the record of which is given in Nehemiah.

All agree that the 483 years from then brings us to the time of Christ. Sir Robert Anderson calculated that the 483 years expired on the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Palm Sunday as we know it), at the beginning of Crucifixion week.

The first 49 years marks the period from Nehemiah to the conclusion of OT revelation (444-49 = 395; Malachi is dated as 397BC). Nothing is said about the 434 years in Dan. 9 (but a lot of detail about that period is revealed to Daniel as recorded in ch. 11), except that after it, the Messiah will be cut off, i.e. killed, but ‘not for Himself’ or ‘and shall have nothing’, i.e. seemingly purposeless death not leading to the Messianic age.

Which brings us to v.26   after that, i.e. after the 69 weeks and before the 70th week, there is an implied gap – what we now know as the ‘Day of Grace’ – the age we are living in (e.g. other gaps in prophecy Isa. 61:1-2; Luke 21:24) – note

• beginning – death of Messiah (is this a hint of the New Covenant?)
• middle (destruction of the city and the sanctuary),
• end (determined wars and desolations)

The 70^th week starts with the covenant between ‘someone’ and ‘the many’. The someone is defined as ‘he’ – the antecedent for which is ‘the prince who shall come’, whose people destroyed the city and the sanctuary, which was the Romans, so the prince is identified as coming from Rome, or at least, Europe.

v.27    Israel in the 70th week  – note

• beginning (Covenant confirmed),
• middle (Covenant broken),
• end (the decreed end is poured out on the desolator [ESV])

The vision in Dan. 9 leaves us on a bit of a cliff-hanger as it doesn’t state how the purposes of the 70 weeks will actually be fulfilled! Just that these things have to happen. The events of the 70^th week and what that leads to (i.e. the fulfilment of the purpose of the 70 weeks) are filled out in other Scriptures, but most clearly by the teaching of the Lord Jesus is what is known as the Olivet Discourse in Matt. 24 and Luke 21, which we can clearly map on to Daniel 9:26-27.

In Luke’s record, Jesus’ focus is on the first generation after the Cross.

In Luke 21, Jesus focuses more on the events leading up to the destruction of the Temple in AD70. Note Luke 21:10-11 describing the tumultuous times at the end, but v.12 “Before all these” the events of vv. 12-19 must occur, implying that Jesus wouldn’t be there to defend them and describing the events which would take place, and we can see fulfilled in the early church.

v.20-24a describe the events of 67-70AD. Interesting question: “How do you flee from a city surrounded by armies?” The Christians of that time took note of what Jesus said, and when Vespasian lifted the siege of Jerusalem to become Emperor, they did just what Jesus told them to do – they fled and many went to Pella (in Jordan).

The synchronising point is the destruction of the Temple (Dan. 9:26b) which occurred in AD70 – we note that the Temple was burnt down before Titus had the chance to raise the Imperial Standard in the Temple, so he didn’t commit the abomination of desolation at that time.

v. 24b Jesus then skips 2000 years so far, right to the end times just before His Return (Matthew’s account fills in some details here, as we will see) and brings us to the end of the Times of the Gentiles.

v.25-26 He then describes a time of great tribulation which is followed in
v.27 by His Return in glory

In Matthew’s record, Jesus’ focus is on the last generation before His return.

Here, Jesus gives a lot more detail on the events of the later part of the Tribulation and around His Return.

v.4-8 describes the lead-up to the end times – the beginning of birth pangs. In some respects, this has characterised the last 2000 years but has definitely intensified in the last century or so.

v.9-14 describe what follows the birth pangs – the days we are living in?

v.15 The synchronising point is the major event of Dan. 9:27b – “the abomination which makes desolate”. Many commentators see this as the time when the Man of Sin presents himself in the Temple and says that he is god (2 Thess. 2:4 – prefigured by Antiochus Epiphanes in 188BC defiling the then Temple with a pig and a statue of Jupiter – same expression is used in Dan. 11:31)

v.16-28 describe the events the follow the abomination – the persecution of the faithful remnant and attempts to deceive them.

v.29-31 and finally! The Return in glory of the Lord Jesus and the regathering of the nation of Israel.

What has all this fulfilled and how?

This leads to the establishment of His Kingdom, which is ‘the stone cut out without hands’ in Daniel 2 that smashes the Gentile kingdoms of this world and becomes an empire that fills the whole world following which “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:9 – where we started today!)

Promises of Abrahamic Covenant	No. of times	Mosaic	Land	Davidic
A land is promised to his descendants	9		X	X
Great nation to come from Abraham	8	X	X
Yahweh will be their God and protect them	4	X	X
Everlasting duration	4			X
God confirms it with an oath	2		X	X
Descendants will rule over enemies	1		X
National and international prosperity and peace	1		X	X
Additional Promises in Mosaic, Land and Davidic
To be God’s special people and priestly nation		X
To be the head and not the tail of the nations		X	X	X
Dispersion for disobedience		X	X
Regathering after repentance			X

The Fulfilment of the Covenants links together:

• The Abrahamic Covenant looks forward to a Descendant (Seed) to inherit the promises – according to Gal. 3:16, this is Christ
• The Davidic Covenant looks forward to a Descendant who will be settled in God’s House and Kingdom for ever. The Angel Gabriel applies this to Jesus (Luke 1:32-33; cf. Isa. 9:6-7) who is Himself eternal
• The Land and Davidic Covenants are part of the fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant
• Both the Land and Davidic Covenants have been put on hold by disobedience (exile foretold in Land Covenant, and Davidic kings stopped at the Babylonian exile but NB Luke 1:32-33!) but both contain promises relating to the promised Seed
• Only the Mosaic Covenant deals with the question of sin. Paul says in Gal.3 that the Mosaic Law was a temporary administration, which couldn’t give righteousness but shut us all up under sin until Christ came and, with His coming, the ‘promise of faith’ which is ‘justification by faith’ became available
• The Mosaic Covenant is the only one of the OT covenants which is said to have been broken (Jer. 31:32)

We discussed the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the context of biblical covenants and the restoration of God’s rule over the earth and emphasized that Gentiles should not feel as second-class citizens in God’s plan, as they are included in the New Covenant and are part of the One New Man. We pointed out that God’s principle is to bless one group of people through another, and that in the Millennium, Israel and the Church will be united. We concluded by emphasizing the importance of understanding Scripture to avoid misunderstandings about God’s plan caused by prior theological viewpoints.