Face and prophet sealed

At the beginning of Daniel 9, we read how the prophet Daniel, at an advanced age, is studying the prophecies of Jeremiah. He determines: the seventy years of desolation over Jerusalem are completed. Daniel appeals to God’s promise: would restoration now come?

And while he is still praying, a messenger appears. He not only brings the message that the decree of King Cyrus has gone forth to restore Jerusalem, but he also opens a new window: “Seventy sevens are determined for your people and for your holy city” (Dan. 9:24).

What follows is a prophecy of unparalleled precision. No longer is it about seventy years, but about seventy year weeks (sabbatical years): seventy periods of seven years each, including ten corresponding jubilee years. In total five hundred years. This prophetic clock begins to tick from the moment the word went forth to rebuild Jerusalem. Until the coming of the Messiah at the end of sixty-nine sevens.

six objectives

In verse 24, the messenger lists six objectives that would be accomplished within seventy sevens:

1. To finish the transgression
2. To conclude sin
3. To cover iniquity
4. To bring righteousness eonian
5. To seal the vision and the prophet
6. To anoint the holy of holies

Through His death and resurrection halfway through the seventieth year-week, the Messiah officially finished the transgression and concluded sin (2 Cor. 5:17). He covered iniquity (1 Cor. 2:2) and brought righteousness of the eons (Rom. 3:21). Thus He became the most holy Anointed One – the Christ (Acts 2:36).

face and prophet sealed?

Among these six objectives, one appears to stand out somewhat: to seal the face (vision) and the prophet. What could this refer to?

To seal means: to close off, to make inaccessible. A sealed letter cannot be read unless the seal is broken. Since the seventieth seven, a sealing lies upon “the vision and the prophet” – specifically for the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. For the seventy sevens concern them: “your people and your holy city.”

Vision and prophecy are sealed. They are not understood. They are hidden. And that is precisely what took place when the Messiah appeared: the people who possessed the Scriptures were no longer able to understand them. This is not accidental, for it was foretold. Isaiah says: “Tie up the testimony; Seal the law among my disciples.” (Isa. 8:16). And as long as this sealing remains, YAHWEH would also hide His face from the house of Jacob (Isa. 8:17).

until when?

But that sealing is not permanent. In Daniel 12 – the conclusion of the book of Daniel – the messenger says: “These words shall be obscured and sealed till the era of the end.” That is an important indication. The sealing has a “until.” And when the era of the end comes, many shall scrutinize, and knowledge shall increase.

That unveiling will take place from what Scripture calls “a season of distress” (Dan. 12:1). A time that coincides with the discontinuation of the daily approach present in Jerusalem. That presupposes that temple service must first be reinstated – something that has not yet occurred. But from that moment, the sealed scrolls will be opened, and the remnant of Israel will begin to understand what until then had been hidden from them.

In expectation

To this day, we live in the era of concealment. The Messiah has come, He has concluded transgression and sin, brought righteousness, and has been anointed with spirit. But His people do not recognize Him. Since then, vision and prophecy have been sealed for them.

And yet – to those who now have ears to hear and eyes to see, it is unveiled. Not through one’s own insight, but because He Himself breaks the seal and removes the covering (2 Cor. 3). We may already now understand what remains hidden to many. Not because we comprehend it, but because He reveals Himself. That is grace.

Therefore we await. For He fulfills His word, in His time, with precision. Just as He did when the seventy years were completed. And again, when the seventy sevens were fulfilled. As surely as vision and prophet were sealed at His first coming, so surely shall they be unveiled at His return!

Delen: