THE TIMEFRAME OF MESSIAH’S COMING WAS FORETOLD

In Part 1 we learned that God promised to send a Savior, a Messiah to save the world from sin.  We also learned that the Messiah would be God Himself.  Now let’s look at when the Bible says Hw would come.

"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.” (Daniel 9:25-26)

Now in these verses you have two areas where a timeframe is given:

1) Were told the Messiah would be “cut off, but not for Himself" at the end of 62 weeks. A week equals seven years.  The Jewish calendar used a 360-day year so 69 weeks of 360-day years totals 173,880 days.  Essentially Gabriel told Daniel that the interval between the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the presentation of the Messiah as King would be 173,880 days.  

That commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 BC. (The emphasis in the verse on "the street" and "the wall" was to avoid confusion with other earlier mandates confined to rebuilding the Temple.)   After accounting for leap years, 173,880 days from March 14, 445 BC. brings us to April 6, 32 AD.  (See the  Khouse study http://www.khouse.org/articles/biblestudy/19960301-46.html for greater detail)

2) If you don’t want to accept that we look to the second source. We’re told that He would be cut off before the city and sanctuary is destroyed. This occurred in 70AD.

Then we find this third reference:

"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”.  (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

After the temple was destroyed in 70AD it became impossible to tell who was from which tribe because the genealogies were stored there. The Messiah had to come before 70AD because after that no one could prove what tribe they were from.

And here is a fourth timeframe reference:

"Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple. Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1)

This verse says that the messenger will visit His temple suddenly. Again this would have had to have happened before 70AD.

So all these verses leave us with no doubt that the Messiah had to come before 70 AD.  So we know that God was to come before 70 AD.  What was He to do once He arrived?

READ PART 3: The Messiah Would Die For The Sins Of The World