The Concept of 70 x 7
The seventh day was the holy
day. The week was to be seven days
long.
The seventh month of the year
had the most sacred Jewish festivals.
Every seventh year no crops
were planted and the land was given a Sabbath "rest."
Every 7 x 7 year (49 years)
marked the year of Jubilee where every slave was released and land returned to
the original owners.
Even God's dealing with
Israel were measured out in periods of 70 x 7 (490 years).
1. From Abraham to the Exodus from Egypt.
From the birth of Abraham to
the Exodus was actually 505 years.
(Genesis 12:4, 16:3, 21:5)
But deducting the 15 years
while Abraham's mistake, Ishmael was
Abram's seed, delaying the seed of the promise we find that 505 - 15 = 490 years!
2. From the Exodus to the finishing of the
temple was as follows (Acts 13:20)
In the Wilderness 40 years
Under the Judges 450 years
King Saul 40 years
King David 40 years
King Solomon 3 years (to the laying of the
foundation of the temple)
(I Kings 6:1, 37)
The total of these years is
573 years.
However during the times of
the Judges, the children of Israel were led captive to various groups of people
because of their idolatry. They were
captive under:
Cushan (Judges 3:8) 8
years
Eglon (Judges 3:14) 18
years
Jabin (Judges 4:3) 20
years
Midianites (Judges 6:1) 7
years
Philistines (Judges 13:1) 40
years
So Israel spent 93 years
under the control of other nations in the time of the Judges because of their
idol worship.
Subtracting these 93 years
from 573 years, we arrive at 480 years from the Exodus to the laying of the
foundation of the temple.
The temple was in building 7
years (I Kings 6:38) and was still at least another 3 years for the furnishing
and completing of the work (I Kings 7:13-51).
7 + 3 = 10 years of work on the temple after the foundation was laid.
When we add the 10 years of
the work on the temple to the 480 years from the Exodus from Egypt until the
laying of the foundation of the temple, we find that
480 years + 10 years = 490
years! (Not counting the years spent
into captivity)
3. From the Dedication of Solomon's Temple to
Nehemiah's return to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem after the Babylonian
Captivity.
From the dedication of the
temple to Nehemiah returned in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes' reign was
560 years (Nehemiah 2:1).
Because of their idolatry,
the children of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years
(Jeremiah 25:11-12 Daniel 9:2).
Subtracting the time of
captivity we find that 560 years - 70 years = 490 years!
4. Daniel's 70 prophetic weeks.
From Nehemiah's return to the
"cutting off" of the Messiah, or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was
7 weeks of years (7 x 7) or 49 years, and "threescore and two weeks"
of years (62 x 7) or 434 years. That is a
total of 483 years.
After an interval of
undetermined time (as of now close to 2,000 years and running) then God will
deal with Israel for a period of 1 more week of years (7 years).
483 years + the 7 years of
Daniel's 70th week = 490 years when not counting the present time of the
Gentiles!