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“Counting The Days”
Categories: OLD TESTAMENTWhat does 490 days and 70 weeks mean in the Bible, and does it relate to today?Sincerely,
Delving Into Daniel
Dear Delving Into Daniel,
The seventy weeks of Dan 9:24 (also known as 'the 490 days') are symbolic weeks, not literal (much of the language in the book of Daniel is symbolic). In order to understand what the seventy weeks represent, we need to have a little context. At this time, the nation of Israel was in captivity, and the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins. God had promised that He would bring Israel back from Babylonian captivity after seventy years (Jer 25:11-12). Daniel knew that those seventy years of captivity were almost finished, and he had just finished praying that God would begin to return Israel (Dan 9:20) to the holy mountain of Jerusalem. After this prayer, the angel Gabriel came and told Daniel that his prayer had been heard and that God had more details to tell him about Israel’s future (Dan 9:22-23).
These figurative seventy weeks represent the time from the restoration of Israel to the day when Jesus (referred to as the Most Holy One) came to die for mankind’s sins (Dan 9:24). During that time, Jerusalem would be rebuilt even through troublesome times (Dan 9:25). God revealed to Daniel the future of Israel and the coming of Jesus Christ. So, yes, the seventy weeks relate to us today because Christ died for our sins… but, no, they don’t refer to any future events.
