The 2300-Year Prophecy
Last week, I wrote about the judgment hour message and the longest time prophecythe 2300 days. This week I want to explain this most-important prophecy and how it applies to us. The important question now is where, then, does the great prophetic measuring line begin for the 2300 years that were to reach to the opening of this judgment hour and when do they end? It was for our sake that the angel Gabriel in Daniel's vision asked, "How long shall be the vision?" We know the period of the 2300 years reaches to these last days, for the angel said: "At the time of the end shall be the vision" (Dan. 8:17).
The angel Gabriel was commanded, "make this man to understand the vision (Dan 8:16). We can then understand this long prophetic period if we follow the angel's explanation. The angel explained the first part of the vision of Daniel eight. The prophecy covers events from the days of Medo-Persia, through Grecia and Rome, to the development of the apostasy that plunged Europe into the Dark Ages.
"But before the angel Gabriel explained the vision of the 2300 years, Daniel had fainted. This prophetic period was important. In fact, 2300 day ('evening-morning,' margin of verse 14) gave the title to the vision. The angel said, 'The vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true.' Verse 26. But Daniel could then bear no more of this story of the great controversy between truth and error. He 'fainted, and was sick certain days.'
"Then Daniel went about the king's business, still thinking of the vision. The angel's last words had declared that this vision of the 2300 days, or years [remember a day a year in Bible prophecy. See Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 14:34], was 'true,' and that it would be for 'many days,'far in the future-even 'at the time of the end;' but no explanation had been given Daniel as to when the long prophetic period would begin. The angel's commission to 'make this man to understand the vision' was left unfulfilled so far as the time prophecy was concerned. Daniel said: 'I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.' Verse 27.
"But in the next chapter the angel Gabriel came to complete the explanation. It may have been a few weeks or months later, or possibly a year or more. The vision of the 2300 days in the eighth was given 'in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar,' of Babylon. This was probably his last year, when Babylon was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. The next chapter of Daniel opens 'in the first year of Darius' the Mede. And is this ninth chapter the angel Gabriel appears to continue his explanation of the vision to Daniel. An ancient kingdom had been overturned. The scepter of world empire had passed from the Babylonians to the Medes and Persians. It was an epochal time. But the angel had not as yet fully discharged the command of God to make Daniel 'understand the vision.' No angel would ever leave a divine commission but partially fulfilled, and here in the ninth chapter, the angel Gabriel, messenger of God to the prophet, comes to complete the work committed to him.
The angel in his former interview had broken off his explanation with the assurance that the vision of the 2300 years was 'true.' He now resumes his commission to make Daniel understand, beginning where he left off, with the vision of the time period, saying,
'O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding....Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.' Daniel 9:22, 23.
First of all, the angel dealt with the events of the first portion of the long 2300-year measuring line of the prophecy that was to run through the centuries to that 'time of the end.' The first portion-490 years of it, as we shall see-was allotted to the Jewish people, and especially to Jerusalem. This shorter period was 'determined,' or 'cut off,' as the word signifies,-cut off, necessarily, from the long period of 2300 years which the angel had come to explain. The angel Gabriel said:
'Understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks [490 days; literally, 490 years] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.' Daniel 9:23, 24.
Thus the first portion490 yearsof the long prophetic period was to reach to the times of Christ's ministry on earth at His first advent, when He came as the great Sacrifice. 'to make reconciliation for iniquity,' while the end of the long period was to mark the opening of the judgment hour in heaven, the cleansing of the sanctuary, preparatory to His second advent.
THE EVENT THAT MARKS THE BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD
And now come the fateful words: the angel's explanation cites the event that marks the beginning of the prophetic period. This is all-essential to understanding 'the vision.' Without this we cannot begin to follow the thread of the time prophecy that runs through the times of the Messiah on the earth to the beginning of His closing ministry in heaven.
'Know therefore and understand,' said Gabriel to the prophet, thus showing that now he is actually to fulfill the divine charge, 'make this man to understand the vision.' We listen with all ears; for what we too must understand is where the long measuring line begins, along which, as on knotted cord, the great events associated with the times of Christ's first advent of the opening of the judgment hour in the last days, with its issue of eternal life or eternal death to every one of us.
'Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. Daniel 9:25
When did this commandment to restore and build go forth? The vision had been given in the days of the captivity. The Jewish people were scattered over Babylonia and Persia. Jerusalem lay desolate. Three kings of Persia issue decrees concerning the return from captivity. In what year of history did 'the commandment' of the prophecy go forth? Holy Scripture, with its handmaid, History, gives the answer." (W. A. Spicer, Certainties of the Advent Movement, pp. 125-127).