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We saw in an earlier article that the Seventy Weeks of Years (490 years) of punishment upon Israel was due primarily due to their failure to observe the commandment of the "Sabbatical Year" which is called in Hebrew "shemittah" which is the seventh year of rest for the land. The Bible proclaims every seventh year "a sabbath of the Lord" (Lev. 25:1-7, 18-22) during which the soil of the land of Israel must rest and lie fallow.
We learn from the Torah that if Israel fails to live up to its obligations before God, punishments will be forthcoming. Throughout Leviticus 26 there is the admonition that the people would be punished "seven ways" for their sins (vs. 18, 21, 24, 28). The Jewish commentators saw this as being applied to this 70-year punishment, not only for the transgression of the law of shemittah, the Sabbatical Year, but for other sins that Israel had committed during the time of the First Temple. Among the other sins cited in the Talmud (Yoma 96) are idolatry, licentiousness and bloodshed.
The primary reason the First Temple was destroyed was due to Israel's failure to observe this commandment
This 490 year time of punishment upon Israel (490 years) would one day culminate and then the Messianic hope for Israel could begin. What is critical about this is that the Messianic age could not begin until this 490 years of punishment ended. Again what is critical for us is the correct dating of this punishment as found in the prophecy for when correctly understood we find that the culmination of the punishment is in 70 C.E. with the destruction of the Second Temple and COULD NOT have begun any earlier and this means is could not have begun during the days of Jesus life upon this earth!
Daniel 9
24 Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to forgive iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy place.
We need to closely consider the words "to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place." Since Israel has transgressed the "Sabbatical Year" which is called in Hebrew "shemittah" which is the seventh year of rest for the land then it stands to reason that the iniquity that had to be atoned for was sin of the failure to obey the commandment of the Shemittah. The Seventy Weeks of Daniel concerns the atonement of Israel for failing to let the land observe it's Sabbath. That should scare the dickens out of Christians who themselves according to Gentile theology do not observe the Sabbath as well which is the 4th Commandment. Such is the legacy we inherited from antisemitic Rome and Constantine. But here the angel Gabriel alludes to not only the length of the punishment (490 years) but also the beginning of the Messianic Age and the six things that will come about when the Messiah is finally revealed. In other words, the angel revealed that once the 490-year period was finished, which included the destruction of the Temple, the hope of the ultimate redemption could begin and the appearance of the Messiah be revealed. What Christians fail to understand is that the two references to the other "anointed" ones that appear along the way during this 490 years are not the End Days Messiah. This End Days Messiah can only appear after the destruction of the Second Temple following those 490 years of punishment that culminate from the destruction of the First Temple to the destruction of the Second Temple. The final exile would finish the transgression, and serve as the atonement for sin and iniquity. It would end with the anointing of the Holy of Holies in the Third Temple.
The reference to the sealing of "vision and prophet" signifies the fulfillment of all the promises and tidings predicted by the prophets and again this only could begin following the 490 years of punishment upon Israel again which end in 70 C.E.
Hopefully now you can see the difference between what the context of Daniel 9 says about the particular sin being atoned for here versus the idea of Western Christianity that this atonement is for universal sin of all mankind. Such foolish reasoning by Christianity destroys the whole context of Daniel 9 and what God was saying to the Jewish people in these Scriptures.
An example of the Messianic hope brought about by the destruction of the Second Temple is found in the Babylonian Talmud in a story about Rabbi Akiva. This incident took place on the occasion of a journey to Rome, approximately 25 years after the Temple was destroyed.
Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Joshua and Rabbi Akiva were coming up to Jerusalem together and just as they came to Mt. Scopus they saw a fox emerging from the Holy of Holies. They fell weeping and Rabbi Akiva laughed. Wherefore said they to him: Why are you laughing? Said he: Why are you weeping? They said to him: a place of which it was once said, And the common man who goes near (to the Holy of Holies) shall be put to death (Num 1:51) is now become the haunt of foxes, and should we not weep?
He said: This is why I laugh. For it is written: And I will take to Me faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah (Is 8:2; cf. Zec 1:1). Now what connection has this Uriah the priest with Zechariah? Uriah lived during the times of the First Temple, while [the other] Zechariah lived [and prophesied] during the second Temple. But the Torah linked the [later] prophecy of Zechariah with the [earlier] prophecy of Uriah. In the earlier prophecy [in the days of] Uriah it is written: Therefore shall Zion, because of you, be plowed like a field (Mic 3:12; Jer 26:18-20). In Zechariah it is written: Thus saith the Lord of Hosts. Yet shall old men and women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem (Zec 8:4). So long as Uriah's [threatening] prophecy had not been fulfilled, I was afraid that Zechariah's prophecy would not be fulfilled. Now that Uriah's prophecy has been [literally] fulfilled, it is certain that Zechariah's prophecy also is to find its literal fulfillment. They said to him: Akiva, you have comforted us! Akiva, you have comforted us!
We can see from this passage that there was the expectation that the Third Temple of the Messianic Age could now become a reality. In other words, once the Second Temple was destroyed, the ultimate redemption could come at any time.
In case you did not notice it this time for possible beginning of the Messianic redemption to begin is roughly 37 to 38 years AFTER the death of Jesus!