The 490 years ended when the Jews stoned Stephen.

Purpose

In Dispensationalism, God suspended His 490-year covenant with Israel at the Cross and postponed the last seven years to just before Christ’s return.

This article shows, firstly, that the covenant was not suspended at Christ’s death. After His death, Israel had one final opportunity to repent. For that purpose, God sent His Holy Spirit with great power, but only to Israel.

Secondly, this article shows that the 490 years ended a few years after Christ’s death, when Israel, by stoning Stephen, also rejected the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit fell only on Jews

The first chapters of Acts show that God’s covenant with Israel did not end at the cross. On the contrary, He sent His Holy Spirit, His miracle-working, Spirit-filled disciples, and the gospel message with great power, but only to Jews (cf. Acts 10:45). For example:

• Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4).

• His disciples received the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem on Pentecost – a day when Jews from every nation were gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 2:10, 5). This implies that God chose that day and place to give the apostles the opportunity to preach repentance to Jews from all over the world. Peter called on the gathered Jews to repent (Acts 2:38). On that day, 3000 were added to the Church, but they were all Jews (Acts 2:41, cf. 5:11).

• God empowered Peter to heal a lame man at the temple (Acts 3:2, 7). This implies that God wanted Peter to preach to the Jews at the temple. All the people gathered around Peter and the apostles; full of amazement (Acts 3:11). Peter urged them to repent. Many believed, and the church grew to 5000 men, all of them Jews (Acts 3:19; 4:4).

• After the apostles were jailed, an angel released them and told them to go and speak to the people in the temple. They preached every day in the temple (Acts 5:18, 20, 42).

• Peter proclaimed that God exalted Jesus “to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel” (Acts 5:31).

In conclusion, the first seven chapters of Acts do not mention non-Jews at all. During those first years after the cross, while “the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly,” not a single non-Jew accepted the gospel or received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:45). The church consisted of Jews only (Acts 6:7).

Vision of the Unclean Animals

The situation changed when God, in Acts 10, a few years after the Cross, gave Peter the vision of the unclean animals (Acts 10:11, 12, 19-20). The purpose of that vision was not to teach the Church what they are allowed to eat. It was about who may receive the gospel and the Holy Spirit. Peter interpreted the vision as saying that God showed him not to regard Gentiles as unclean (Acts 10:28). He said:

“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34-35; cf. 11:12).

That knowledge allowed Peter to accompany the Gentiles and preach to them. That shows that, before the vision, Christians thought of Gentiles as unholy or unclean, did not associate with them, and did not take the gospel to them.

While Peter spoke to the uncircumcised Gentiles, the Holy Spirit fell on them, and they spoke in tongues. This surprised the Jews (Acts 10:23, 44-45), meaning that this was the first time that Gentiles received the Holy Spirit.

End of the Covenant

In Acts 6, the gospel proclamation still focused on the circumcised (Acts 6:7). But in Acts 10, by giving Peter the vision, God redirects the gospel to non-Jews. The chapters between Acts 6 and 10 describe Israel’s persecution of the believers, beginning with Stephen’s stoning (Acts 7, 8:1), and ending with Paul’s conversion (Acts 9:31). Paul’s conversion was part of the redirection of the gospel focus from Jew to Gentiles, for he was to become the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13; Gal 2:10). Therefore, this shift in the gospel’s focus, from Jews to Gentiles, coincided with Israel’s persecution of God’s Spirit-filled people.

However, the turning point was specifically Stephen’s death:

Firstly, the persecution of Christians began with Stephen’s stoning (Acts 8:1).

Secondly, Stephan announced the end of the covenant. As discussed, the entire Daniel 9 is based on God’s covenant with Israel. Stephen’s speech was similarly based on the covenant. But while Daniel confessed Israel’s sins and prayed for covenant renewal, Stephen announced God’s judgment in terms of the covenant:

Earlier speeches in Acts called hearers to repentance. In contrast, Stephen cited God’s mighty acts in the past for His people, showing that God was faithful. Then he listed Israel’s failures, showing that it was unfaithful. After his long recital of Israel’s history, he announced his verdict:

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it” (Acts 7:51- 53).

The Bible consistently says that Jesus sat down at God’s right hand (Luke 22:69; Heb 8:1-2; 10:12; cf. Col 3:1; Rom 8:34; Acts 2:33; 5:31; Mark 16:19; 1 Peter 3:22). But Stephen saw “Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Jesus stood in judgment. Stephen was the conduit through whom Jesus announced judgment on Israel. Through Stephen, Jesus announced the end of God’s covenant with Israel.

According to Britannica, Jesus died on 3 April AD 33, and Stephen on 26 December AD 36. If these dates are correct, Stephen died 3½ years after the Cross.

Conclusions

The Final Seven Years

The “one week” of verse 27, symbolizing the final seven years, when “he” will confirm the covenant, was the period from Jesus’ baptism, 3½ years before the Cross, until Stephen’s death, 3½ years after the Cross. During those seven years, Jesus confirmed God’s covenant with Israel; firstly, through His personal preaching before He died and, secondly, for a further 3½ years after His death, by sending His disciples, empowered with the Holy Spirit, ONLY to Jews.

In other words, after Jesus died, Israel had one final opportunity to repent, and the Spirit called Israel to repentance. Never before or after in human history has God appealed for the heart of any nation like He did during those seven years.

The 490 years ended when Stephen died.

Daniel 9 does not specify a specific event for the end of the 490 years. However, as discussed, the 490 years were an extension of God’s covenant with Israel. Therefore, the end of the covenant was also the end of the 490 years. Since the gospel went only to Jews during the first few years after the Cross, the 490-year covenant did not end when Jesus died. Since God, after Stephen’s death (Acts 7; 8:1), suddenly redirected the gospel away from the Jews, his death marked the end of the 490-year covenant (cf. Matt 21:43).

Jesus ended the Jewish Sacrifices.

According to Daniel 9:27, “he” will end sacrifices in the middle of the last seven years. That describes Jesus’s death. He was the Lamb of God (John 1:29). The Jewish sacrifices pointed forward to His death. When He died, the Jewish sacrifices lost all significance.

What if Israel repented?

If Israel had accepted the message brought by the Holy Spirit after Christ’s death, history would have been very different. Then the nation of Israel would have proclaimed “the excellencies of Him” to the entire world in the power of the Holy Spirit.