There are many contentions over who Jesus is. Some say He was just a good man, others claim He was a prophet, and some say He is the Messiah. Is there any way we can know? Few people realise that the exact time for the first coming of the Messiah was laid out in a prophecy in Daniel 9. By calculating the dates foretold by Daniel we can know exactly whether or not Jesus was the promised Messiah.
Before we do that it is important for us to understand who and what the Messiah is. Messiah literally means ‘the Anointed One’. To be anointed is to be dedicated through the Holy Spirit for a special purpose.
In Isaiah 61:1 we can read,
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”
The Messiah came to reveal the character and nature of God to a world that had all but forgotten Him. He came to set us free from slavery to our own bad habits and passions, to bind up the wounds of our brokenness and guilt, and to give us hope and a future. However, His mission involved much more than this.
Isaiah 53 describes with incredible clarity the key purpose of the Messiah’s first coming.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (vs 5 & 6)
The Messiah came to be our sacrifice for sin. Why? Because the penalty for sin is death (1 John 3:4). Without the Messiah’s sacrifice, we would all have to pay the penalty for our own sin, and this would mean death for us all. We would all be without hope in a world that is suffering in sin, with nothing but eternal death to look forward to. Thankfully, the heart of infinite love has another plan for humanity. God takes no pleasure in the death of the sinner. He does not want to see anyone perish. Instead, He was willing to give Heaven’s most precious gift, His own Son, to die in our place.
“He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities”. Isaiah 53:11
Here we see the willingness of the Saviour to lay down His life. There was no force involved. He was satisfied to lay down His life as a ransom for many.
The reality that the Messiah had to die to meet the requirement of a broken law establishes the eternal nature of this law. If God could simply throw the law aside, no one, including the Messiah, would need to die. God establishes His justice by maintaining His law and its required penalty. A law loses its force when it is not upheld. God did not err in creating the law, neither will He err in maintaining it. The ten commandment law, which defines sin (Romans 7:7 and 1 John 3:4), will forever form the basis of God's government in Heaven (Psalms 111:7, 8). His people are defined as those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). We should be eternally grateful that One who knew no sin, consented to become sin for us and die in our place. What marvellous love!
Regarding the nature of who the Messiah is Micah 5:2 states,
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
Here is predicted the Messiah’s place of birth and a clear statement about His eternal existence. When dealing with an everlasting life we can only be dealing with One who is God. The Bible plainly tells us that God alone is immortal (1 Timothy 6:16), He alone existed before all things (Psalms 90:2).
Jeremiah 23:5, 6 shows further evidence to the divinity of the Messiah,
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”.
Within the title ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ is the name 'Jehovah'. This is the Old Testament name for God. So here we can see clearly that the Messiah is God, indeed He is the Son of God, the second member of the Godhead.
"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Having established who the Messiah is and why He came, we can now look more closely at when the prophet Daniel predicted He would arrive. For this, we need to study the 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27. Here Daniel is told that,
“Seventy weeks are determined for your people (Israel) and for your holy city (Jerusalem), to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy”. (vs 24)
We are told in verse 25 that this time period starts with the command to restore and build Jerusalem. When Israel was overtaken by the armies of Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple were largely destroyed and Israel lost its independence as a nation as well as its religious temple service. The command here mentioned was one to repair this damage. In Ezra 7:12-28, we can read the command as given by King Artaxerxes to reestablish the temple service, and restore the Jewish state in both civil and religious matters. This command was given in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7) which from a study of history we can find was the year 457 B.C. We now have the start date of the 70 weeks prophecy.
Next, we must look at what time period 70 weeks truly represents. When dealing with Bible prophecy a day represents a year.
“And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year”. Ezekiel 4:6
Here we have the instruction to substitute a day for a year. So 70 weeks becomes 490 literal years.
If we go back to Daniel 9:25 we see that from the command to restore and build Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince will be seven, and 62 weeks. If you add this up you get 69 weeks, which is 483 literal years.
Doing some simple math, and remembering that there is no such thing as the year 0, we will find that 483 years from 457 B.C. brings us to 27 A.D. This is the time that we should expect to see the Messiah be anointed to His work and begin His ministry.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was 30 years old when He was baptised and anointed with the Holy Spirit.
“And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased”. Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,” (Luke 3:22-23)
If this was in 27 A.D., then, if we take 30 years, this places Jesus birth in 4 B.C. which is accurate according to the most recent reckoning of the dates. It was previously thought that Jesus was born in 1 A.D., however, the historical record has his birth before the death of King Herod which was in 4 B.C. So far Jesus is fitting perfectly into this prophecy, as a matter of fact, He came right on time.
Jesus was well aware of who He was, which is why it is recorded that He preached that “the time is fulfilled” (Mark 1:15). He knew He was on time according to the prophecy of Daniel 9.
So far we have only reached 69 of the 70 weeks prophecy. In Daniel 9:27 we are told that the Messiah would be cut off in the middle of the 70th week.
“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
The middle of the week would be exactly three and a half years later. Jesus was crucified in 31 A.D. exactly three and a half years after He began his ministry in 27 A.D. This brought an end to the sacrifices and offerings of the Old Testament ceremonial system. The sacrificing of animals was a representation of the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus would make on behalf of humanity. When He died these types and symbols were no longer needed, they were nailed to His cross (Colossians 2:14). Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Now we can approach the throne of God directly for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus is our mediator with the Father, the Jewish priests and officials no longer play this role.
The end of the 490 years brings us to 34 A.D. At that time the Jewish nation sealed its rejection of the gospel by the stoning of Stephen and the persecution of the disciples of Christ. From this time the disciples were given the instruction to take the gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews), and the Apostle Paul was especially called to this task.
The 70 weeks prophecy is just one of many that Jesus perfectly fulfilled. Check out the article 'Is the Bible Worth Reading?' to have a look at a few other prophecies about Jesus that came true. Daniel was given this vision over 500 years before it came to pass. We have no reason to doubt who Jesus is and what He means to us today. Jesus gave His life for us, He gave His life for you. Right now He is standing at the door to our hearts and knocking, longing for us to let Him come in. Will you take one step towards the Saviour? if you do you will find His arms open wide. Let us turn our eyes upon Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, the Son of God, the only one who can save us, that we might receive the full gift of His grace and find peace and assurance.
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