“Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven[a] will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times. “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.” Daniel 9:25-27
In AD 70, the prophecy was fulfilled when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and the Jewish nation was scattered. This was the end of the 483 years. This was the end of period two. The third period, this period will last for seven years. We are approaching the final seven years of the prophetic calendar that Gabriel gave Daniel. This period will be the great tribulation. The world has always known wars and desolation. “The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about—the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place.” (Reader, pay attention!)” (Matthew 24:15) In Matthew 24 we have Jesus telling us about the great tribulation. The end of this verse “reader pay attention” is telling us that we need to be right with God for this day is coming and we don’t know when. After this tribulation, Jesus will return and rule for 1000 years. The event that triggers this last seven years period is the signing of a covenant between the Antichrist and the Jewish nation. The Antichrist will be a key political leader in Europe, one of the ten toes of the image in Daniel 2, and the little horn who emerges from the ten horns in Daniel 7. He wants to protect the Jews from their enemies, but after three-half years he will break the covenant and will forces the world to worship him. “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” (John 5:43) Jesus is speaking of the antichrist. In the end Jesus Christ will defeat him. God will not consider Israel a nation until the temple site is once again occupied.