“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Because you have
not obeyed My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the
north,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants
and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and
make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I
will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the
light of the lamp. This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these
nations will serve the king of Babylon
This is the first place chronologically in Scripture where
the “seventy years” are promised by the Lord for the Babylonian exile of
the Jews.
As our Baptist forefathers taught, “the infallible rule for
the interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself” (1689 Baptist
Confession of Faith 1.9). Jeremiah’s prophecy seems very straight-forward,
without any need for nuance or cleverness. However, three other inspired
authors of Scripture give us three different inspired interpretations of
Jeremiah’s “seventy years.” In this we learn an important lesson about
biblical interpretation.
“The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them
again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and
on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God,
despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD
arose against His people, until there was no remedy. Therefore He brought up
against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword
in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin,
old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. All the articles of the
house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and
the treasures of the king and of his officers, he brought them all to Babylon Jerusalem
The Chronicler is inspired to interpret “seventy years”
as the time between the destruction of Jerusalem
(586 B.C.) and Cyrus’ decree (539 B.C.) – somewhere between 47-48 years. Given
that the Chronicler mentions this time as that in which “the land had
enjoyed its sabbaths” (36:21; in accord with the covenant curses in
Leviticus 26:34,35,43), we are probably meant to understand this seventy years
to be seven sabbaths (49 years). The Chronicler, as inspired of God the Holy
Spirit as Jeremiah, understands the 70 years to be “literally” about 49 years, or
seven sabbaths. If we truly let Scripture interpret Scripture, Jeremiah’s
prophetically-uttered time period must be understood symbolically.
“Then the angel of the LORD said, ‘O LORD of hosts, how
long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem
and the cities of Judah Jerusalem
and Zion Jerusalem with compassion; My house
will be built in it,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and a measuring line will be
stretched over Jerusalem
Interestingly, one of the most challenging prophets to
interpret (Zechariah) seems to be inspired of God the Holy Spirit to interpret
Jeremiah’s “seventy years” in what we would consider the most “literal”
manner! Between the destruction of Jerusalem
(586 B.C.) and the dedication of the second temple (515 B.C.), the building of
which is the predominant theme of the first chapters of Zechariah, is roughly
70 years. Is Zechariah more accurate or inspired than the Chronicler? No! They
are both inerrantly inspired by the same Holy Spirit. Jeremiah’s “seventy
years” are meant to be understood symbolically, and the Holy Spirit’s
interpretation of His own words reveal this to us clearly.
“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of
Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans - in the
first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the
years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for
the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. So I
gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with
fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed...”
(Daniel 9:2-4).
The prophet Daniel, after reading Jeremiah’s “seventy
years” prophecy, prays a confession worthy of our reading, meditation, and
memorization (9:4-19). He doesn’t seek interpretation of the prophecy, but
confesses the sins of his forefathers and his own generation. He confesses that
they are worthy of the destruction of Jerusalem
and the exile – all “the curse...along with the oath which is written in the
law of Moses the servant of God” (9:11). After this prayer, the prophet is
visited by a supernatural messenger who gives us a third inspired
interpretation of the “seventy years.”
“...while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man
Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme
weariness about the time of the evening offering. He gave me instruction and
talked with me and said, ‘O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight
with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was
issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed
to the message and gain understanding of the vision. Seventy weeks have
been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy
place...’” (9:21-24).
This revelation is related to Jeremiah’s “seventy years”
since Gabriel says he was sent “at the beginning of [Daniel’s] supplications”
(9:23), which were prompted by the reading of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah’s “seventy weeks,” while referring to the
Babylonian exile, are now expanded to “seventy weeks” (9:24). Is there
conflict between Jeremiah and Gabriel? No. Both are perfectly inspired by God
the Holy Spirit. We now learn in this period of redemptive history that the
promises made by the prophets concerning the return from Babylonian exile would
not be immediately fulfilled after the “seventy years” (including
Jeremiah’s promises concerning the “new covenant” in 31:31-34). Instead,
they would be delayed until after the intertestamental period (the time between
the Old and New Testaments, a major theme of the book of Daniel), until the
time of “Messiah the Prince” and the destruction of the second temple in
A.D. 70.
One inspired prophecy (Jeremiah) and three inspired
different interpretations (the Chronicler, Zechariah, and Daniel) – all given
by the same Holy Spirit. Each uses the “seventy years” in a theological
sense to teach the original audience (and us) something important about God’s
plan for His people. The Chronicler connects the “seventy years” to the
completion of the land’s sabbaths promised in the Law’s curse and Cyrus’ decree
that the exiles return to that land. Zechariah connects the “seventy years”
to his (and Haggai’s) great prophetic concern – the rebuilding of the temple so
that the returning exiles could resume the worship mandated by the old
covenant. Daniel is moved to intercession and confession by Jeremiah’s “seventy
years,” and Gabriel is sent to extend the fulfillment of the
return/restoration promises to the time of the beginning of the new covenant in
Jesus Christ.
Biblical numbers are not given to us for the primary purpose
of making charts or timelines or setting dates. Biblical numbers, as the Holy
Spirit teaches us in this example of the “seventy years,” themselves are
symbolic and teach theological truths. This is not one redeemed sinner
disagreeing with the interpretation of another (as you and I might over Gabriel's statements in Daniel 9), but four biblical writers all
inspired by one God the Holy Spirit, the infinitely wise Author of all
Scripture.
May we learn from this example as we come across other
theologically-significant numbers in Scripture, and let the Author teach us how
to read His Book, in the name of the Son ("All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, Who is Himself the focus of divine revelation," Baptist Faith & Message 2000, 1) to the glory of the
Father now and forever.
