In Daniel 9, God renewed His covenant with Israel.

Purpose

In Daniel 9, God granted Israel 70 weeks, interpreted as 490 years, to realize six profound goals. The purpose of this article is to show that this was a renewal of God’s covenant with Israel. Consequently, the covenant of the 70th week, mentioned in verse 27, is God’s covenant with Israel, not the covenant of an Antichrist.

God’s Covenant with Israel

In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with Israel. They would be His people, and He would be their God. The covenant promised several benefits for Israel. However, it also warned of several penalties for disobedience. Exile was the most severe. God would lay waste their cities, make their sanctuaries desolate, and scatter the people among the nations (Lev 26:31, 33).

The Covenant Pattern in Leviticus

Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 30 list the covenant promises (blessings) and warnings (curses). It also gives the covenant-exile pattern:

Should Israel become unfaithful (Lev 26:14-39),

God will send them into exile and scatter them among the nations (Lev 26:33).

But if Israel in exile confesses their iniquity (Lev 26:40, 41, 44),

God will remember His covenants with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (Lev 26:42) “that I might be their God” (Lev 26:45). In other words, God would renew His covenant with Israel.

The Annual Sabbaths

God also commanded Israel that every seventh year must be a sabbath year, comparable to the weekly Sabbath day. Israel had to work the land for six years, but in the seventh, the land had to rest (Lev 25:1-4). In other words, Israel had both weeks of days and weeks of years, with the seventh day and year a sabbath.

Furthermore, God said that, while Israel was in exile, the land would receive the rest which it did not have while Israel was living on it (Lev 26:34-35, 43). In this way, God made the sabbath year cycle part of the covenant:

Firstly, it means that God measured faithfulness by compliance with the annual Sabbaths.

Secondly, it means that Israel would be in exile one year for every Sabbath year not observed. Stated differently, since every seventh year was a sabbath, Israel would be in exile one year for every seven years of disobedience.

The Covenant Pattern in Daniel 9

It is important to note that Daniel 9 follows the covenant-exile pattern prescribed by Leviticus:

(1) Exile due to Disobedience to the Covenant

The prophecy was received while Israel was in exile in Babylon. Jerusalem was in ruins (Dan 9:2, 7). According to Jeremiah and Chronicles, this was the penalty for disobedience to the covenant. To explain:

Through Jeremiah, God promised to restore Israel to Jerusalem after 70 years (Jer 29:10).

Chronicles interpreted Jeremiah’s prophecy as saying that, during these 70 years, the land would enjoy its sabbaths” (2 Chron 36:21). In other words, the 70-year Babylonian exile was a covenant curse.

(2) Daniel asked God to renew His covenant.

Daniel’s prayer, as recorded in the first part of Daniel 9, was an appeal to God, in terms of the covenant, to renew His covenant with Israel. This can be seen in the following:

(a) Daniel’s prayer is replete with covenant terminology. For example:

• Daniel 9 is the only chapter in the book to use the peculiar covenant name YHWH (Dan 9:2, 4, 10, 13, 14, 20).

• Daniel referred to God as Him who “keeps the covenant” (Dan 9:4).

• The title Adonay (Lord), the characteristic designation of the God of the covenant, is used only in Daniel 9 and in Dan 1:2.

• The chapter include many other covenant words, such as love, covenant loyalty, and sin. The prayer is saturated with expressions drawn from the Deuteronomic covenant.

(b) Daniel acknowledged that Israel had transgressed God’s law and that the exile was the penalty as warned in the covenant, “the oath which is written in the law of Moses” (Daniel 9:11).

(c) Daniel fulfilled the covenant’s requirement for covenant renewal by confessing Israel’s guilt (Lev 26:40-41; Daniel 9:5-10).

(d) On behalf of Israel, he prayed that God would renew His covenant with Israel and Jerusalem, as God had promised in the covenant (Dan 9:18-19).

(3) The 70 weeks extended God’s Covenant.

Gabriel arrived to give the prophecy to Daniel even while Daniel was still praying (Dan 9:20). This implies that the prophecy was the answer to his prayer. Since Daniel’s prayer was an appeal to God to renew His covenant, the statement, “seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city” (Dan 9:24), was the fulfillment of the promise of covenant renewal (Lev 26:42 and 45).

This is confirmed by how the prophecy expresses the time period, namely as “seventy weeks.” Since God made the seven-year cycle part of the covenant, the phrase “seventy weeks” identifies this as ‘covenant-time’.

Conclusions

(a) The covenant pattern (disobey – exile – repent – covenant renewal) unites Daniel’s prayer and the prophecy. God’s covenant with Israel is the central theme in the entire Daniel 9.

(b) The 490 years promised by Daniel 9 are a renewal or extension of God’s covenant with Israel.

(c) The covenant that is confirmed during the last seven years (Dan 9:27) is the final seven years of God’s time-limited renewed covenant with Israel.

(d) God’s covenant with Israel would end at the end of the 490 years.

(e) Since the 490 years of Daniel 9 are an extension of God’s covenant with Israel, and since the annual sabbath cycle is part of this covenant, every seventh year will be a Sabbath year. In other words, these are 490 literal years, not prophetic years of 360 days each, as in Dispensationalism.