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The Great Controversy
commanded to make Daniel understand the vision, gave him only a
partial explanation. As the terrible persecution to befall the church was
unfolded to the prophet’s vision, physical strength gave way. He could
endure no more, and the angel left him for a time. Daniel “fainted, and
was sick certain days.” “And I was astonished at the vision,” he says,
“but none understood it.”
Yet God had bidden His messenger: “Make this man to understand
the vision.” That commission must be fulfilled. In obedience to it, the
angel, some time afterward, returned to Daniel, saying: “I am now
come forth to give thee skill and understanding;” “therefore understand
the matter, and consider the vision.”
Daniel 8:27, 16
;
9:22, 23, 25-27
.
There was one important point in the vision of chapter 8 which had
been left unexplained, namely, that relating to time—the period of the
2300 days; therefore the angel, in resuming his explanation, dwells
chiefly upon the subject of time:
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“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy Holy
City.... 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. And
after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for
Himself.... And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease.”
The angel had been sent to Daniel for the express purpose of
explaining to him the point which he had failed to understand in the
vision of the eighth chapter, the statement relative to time—“unto
two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed.” After bidding Daniel “understand the matter, and consider
the vision,” the very first words of the angel are: “Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy Holy City.” The word here
translated “determined” literally signifies “cut off.” Seventy weeks,
representing 490 years, are declared by the angel to be cut off, as
specially pertaining to the Jews. But from what were they cut off?
As the 2300 days was the only period of time mentioned in chapter
8, it must be the period from which the seventy weeks were cut off;
the seventy weeks must therefore be a part of the 2300 days, and the
two periods must begin together. The seventy weeks were declared by