We’ve been talking about a seven-year period of time
between the Rapture of the Church from the world and the
glorious Second Coming of Christ immediately after the
Great Tribulation. What’s the basis for this idea of this
seven-year period of time between those two events? The
foundational passage for that seven-year period of time is
in the Old Testament, specifically in Daniel 9:27.
Just to give a little background so we understand, when
you begin with verse 24 of Daniel 9, Daniel is receiving
some incredible revelation from God through the Angel
Gabriel. In that revelation God was mapping out ahead of
time His long-range extended program for Israel in the
future.
He says in verse 24 that "seventy weeks [literally
"seventy sevens"] are determined for your people [Daniel’s
people; that would be Israel] and for your holy city"—that
would be the city of Jerusalem.
What he’s saying here is this: God had determined seventy
periods of time for Israel in the future, but each one of
those seventy periods of time would consist of seven
years. That’s the idea of seventy sevens.
Why seven-year periods? Well, when you go through the Old
Testament you find that God had set up a unique calendar
system for Israel that was based upon seven-year cycles.
For six years they were to till the ground and grow their
crops. But then every seventh year was to be a sabbatical
year in which they would allow the land to rest and
restore its energy. Then for six more years they would
till the ground and then the next seventh year would be a
sabbatical year and they would let it rest.
So God had designed Israel’s calendar system in seven-year
cycles and that’s what He’s doing in this prophecy.
Seventy cycles of time, each one of those cycles consists
of seven years. So seventy times seven, means that 490
years were involved altogether.
When you read that prophecy from verse 24 up through verse
26, we find that the first 69 of those cycles was
fulfilled when Jesus presented Himself to Israel
officially as its Prince, its coming King. The New
Testament would indicate that Jesus did that when He made
His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Then when you examine that prophecy in depth you find that
there is a gap of time between the end of the 69th
cycle of seven years and the beginning of the 70th,
or last cycle of seven-years. You and I right now are
living in that gap of time.
That tells us, therefore, that the last cycle of
seven-years has not yet begun. We could call that the 70th
week, or the 70th
seven. And that last cycle of seven years is what many
Bible scholars have come to call the Tribulation period
because there will be forms of tribulation here in the
world throughout that seven years.
