Jesus' Baptism and Death in Prophecy. The Book of Daniel.

 

Continued from previous post:

The angel Gabriel said that the Messiah would make a covenant with the many for one week (7 years).  If Jesus began his ministry in 27 CE, then the covenant week ends in 34 CE.  What is this covenant week?  This is the last 7 years of the 70-week, or 490-year, probationary period for the Jews.  The Messiah was here on earth in person, ready and willing to make a permanent covenant with the Jews if only they would accept him. 

But in 30 CE, in the middle of the last seven years, the Jewish religious and political leaders successfully schemed to have Jesus killed.  Jesus was cut off and had nothing, separated and rejected by the chosen people, the people blessed with God’s personal attention for centuries.

  What does it mean that Jesus’ death put an end to the sacrifice and grain offering?  Why did Jesus have to die?  All of our decisions and actions have consequences and when we sin it separates us from God - erecting a wall in our relationship with him.  God had set up a substitutional system that would restore our relationship with him and transfer the punishment (eternal consequences) we should receive for our bad choices onto something else.  Those people living before Jesus was on earth would go to the temple, symbolically transfer their sin onto an innocent animal (usually a lamb) and kill it as a sacrificial substitute.  God would accept the substitute, they would be absolved, and their relationship with him would be restored.

 Jesus came to this world to be the ultimate sacrifice.  He was offering himself as our permanent substitute; taking our punishment, absolving us of sin, and becoming a permanent bridge connecting heaven and earth – God and man.  Once he did that, the sacrificial system was put to an end because the ultimate sacrificial substitute had died for us (Heb. 10:11, 12).  When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he appropriately declared, …Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

In 34 CE, the time of God’s favoritism towards the Jewish nation ended because they stubbornly rejected Jesus and his sacrifice for them.  God had to start all over from scratch because, although he had a few followers, he had nothing in the form of a nation of followers anymore.  In that same year the Jews killed a Christian named Stephen and began persecuting all the Christians in the area, so many of them scattered and began preaching wherever they found refuge.  God was building a new “nation” of followers, gathering anyone who wanted to belong to him.

Once God removed his protection from the Jews, they were in big trouble.  In 70 CE the Roman general Titus and his army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.  Jesus had told his disciples that the temple would be destroyed to such an extant that …not one stone here would be left upon another… (Matt. 24:2) and that is exactly what happened.  When Titus’ army set fire to the city, the gold in the temple melted along the walls and the soldiers tore the building apart stone by stone in order to scrape up the gold.  Thus, Titus destroy(ed) the city and the sanctuary.

We have just looked at an extremely important timeline, and we have proven that our interpretation of timelines is accurate from the start to the end, and all points in between. 

Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild Jerusalem was from 457 to 408 BCE. That is 7 weeks in prophecy which translates to 49 years.

Jerusalem rebuilt until Jesus baptized: 408 BCE to 27 CE. 62 weeks = 434 years, 

Jesus baptized until Stephen stoned: 27CE to 34 CE.  One week = 7 years