The Messiah Is on the Way

Editor’s note: In challenging, frightening days, it’s understandable to feel afraid. Max Lucado, in his new book What Happens Next encourages us to know what God’s Word promises us about End Times so that we’re prepared, not scared! Enjoy this excerpt.

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“A command will come to rebuild Jerusalem. The time from this command until the appointed leader comes will be forty-nine years and four hundred thirty-four years.” — Daniel 9:25 NCV

The Hebrew term for “appointed leader” means Messiah. Gabriel was talking about Jesus the Christ! This was a monumental announcement.

The angel mentioned two blocks of time — 49 years and 434 years, for a total of 483 years.

But, Max, I thought Gabriel was talking about 490 years? What about the remaining seven?

Great question. We will answer it soon.

When does the countdown for the 483 years begin? With the command to rebuild Jerusalem. Specifically, “Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and a trench filled with water around it, but it will be built in times of trouble” (v. 25 NCV). When was a command issued to rebuild the capital? And when was the city rebuilt “with streets and a trench in times of trouble”? How quickly can your fingers flip the pages of your Bible to the book of Nehemiah?

Nehemiah was a high-ranking exiled Jewish ruler who lived some 130 years after Daniel received this prophecy. He made a request to Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem. The king agreed to permit and fund the project. According to Nehemiah 2:1, the command was given in April of 444 BC.

We have a starting point! Flip the yearly calendar 483 times, beginning in 444 BC, and where do you land in history?

This question became the obsession of Sir Robert Anderson. In the late 1800s he was the chief of Scotland Yard, an English lawyer, and a serious student of the book of Daniel. He set out to determine the end date of the 483 years. This task was not as easy as one might assume. The Hebrew calendar is not like our calendar. It has 360 days instead of 365 and leap months instead of leap years. Then there was the tricky transition from BC to AD. Even so, his calculations led him to a most significant finding.1

Anderson determined that the 483rd year occurred during the Passover of AD 33; specifically on April 6, the very year and day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.2 Our Savior fulfilled a prophecy that dated back 483 years!3

It’s no wonder that the multitudes were out in droves to welcome Jesus with palm leaves. They had read the prophecy of Daniel! They knew they were living in the days of fulfilled promise. The air was flush with Messianic expectation.

Gabriel’s forecast was so precise that Jesus had harsh words for those who missed it.

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known on this day, even you, the conditions for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes... you did not recognize the time of your visitation. — Luke 19:41, 42, 44 NASB, emphasis mine

Jesus criticized His antagonists because the “day” and “time” were theirs to expect, yet they were not paying attention. He had previously dispatched an angel to His beloved prophet Daniel. He issued His arrival date 483 years in advance. Yet, “His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). They refused to recognize Him as their Messiah. Instead of crowning Him as king, they killed Him as a criminal.

Gabriel told Daniel this would happen. Remember, the angel spoke of two blocks of time: 49 years and 434 years. It took 49 years to rebuild Jerusalem. What about the 434 years?

“After the four hundred thirty-four years the appointed leader will be killed; He will have nothing” (Daniel 9:26 NCV). True to Gabriel’s presage, Jesus was killed. It appeared He had nothing. No followers. No kingdom. He was dead and buried in a borrowed grave. What’s more, the city of Jerusalem soon fell under attack from the Romans. Gabriel augured that event this way: “The people of the leader who is to come will destroy the city and the holy place. The end of the city will come like a flood, and war will continue until the end. God has ordered that place to be completely destroyed” (v. 26 NCV).

This gloomy prophecy was fulfilled on August 6, AD 70. Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem, killed a million Jews, and tore the temple apart stone by stone.4

Do you not find this to be a stunning text?

Studying it led Leopold Kahn, a former rabbi, to become a Christian.5 Sir Isaac Newton said we could stake the truth of Christianity on this prophecy alone.6

Dr. Bill Creasy, a distinguished professor at UCLA, called this portent “one of the most extraordinary examples of long-range, specific prophecy in the Bible.”7

Dr. Mark Hitchcock, author of a five-hundred-page comprehensive book on end times, wrote: “The precision of this prophecy is staggering! I call it the greatest prophecy ever given. It stands as a monumental proof of the inspiration of the Bible.”8

Yet, the observant person has a question. Gabriel foretold 490 years. He explained the first 483 and then stopped. What about the remaining seven?

Tough Times Are Coming

That leader will make firm an agreement with many people for seven years. He will stop the offerings and sacrifices after three and one-half years. A destroyer will do blasphemous things until the ordered end comes to the destroyed city. — Daniel 9:27 NCV

Wait a second. Who is “that leader”? What is this seven-year agreement? How can the ruler stop sacrifices after three and a half years if the temple has been destroyed and, consequently, the temple sacrifices have been discontinued? What just happened?

Here is what many other end-times students and I think: God stopped the 490-year countdown clock at year number 483.

• When the Jews rejected their Messiah, God pressed pause.

There is a gap of time between years 483 and 484 — a hiatus between the events described in Daniel 9:26 and 27.

Why would I believe this? Because the events described in verse 27 have not happened. We have yet to see the moment in which offerings and sacrifices in the temple are disallowed. There is no temple currently. This is a yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecy that alludes to the final 7 years of the 490 years. That period will involve a rebuilt temple, its defilement, a treaty, and an evil despot. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

The Antichrist. He is the warmonger of the end times, the enemy of God, and the nemesis of the Jews. The phrase “leader who is to come” (Daniel 9:26 NCV) refers to him. He will be the pawn of Satan in a final, fatal, and futile attempt to overthrow the kingdom of God. He will enter a pact with the state of Israel. Under the terms of this treaty, Israel will either continue or begin the construction of the temple.

At first the Jews will be delighted with their new friend. The world will sigh with relief at the appearance of peace in the Middle East. Yet, midway through the seven-year treaty, the Antichrist’s true nature will be disclosed. He will tear up the agreement and seize the rebuilt temple. He will install his image and demand universal worship. He will impose his will on the world (Revelation 13:1–18).

Jesus Christ spoke of this moment:

So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. — Matthew 24:15–16

This seven-year season of global struggle is often called the tribulation.

God will use this time of testing to purge and purify the nation of Israel and to populate the new Kingdom with people of faith. He will then declare His final judgment against the would-be world leader. Christ will come a second time to establish a Kingdom. Every eye will see Him (Zechariah 14:3–4; Revelation 1:7). Every knee will bow before Him. And the Son of Man will rule from Jerusalem. At that point the 490 years will be completed, and the millennium, the golden age, will begin.

1. Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregal, 1954), 122, 128; Renald Showers, The Most High God: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Westville, NJ: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 1982); John F. Walvoord, Daniel—The John Walvoord Prophecy Commentaries, revised and edited by Charles Dyer and Phillip Rawley (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2012), 279.
2. Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1977), 47–65, 131.
3. David Jeremiah, The Handwriting on the Wall—Secrets from the Prophecy of Daniel (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson), 195.
4. Tyler Perry, “The Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE,” World History Encyclopedia, May 2, 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1993/the-siege-of -jerusalem-in-70-ce/.
5. “Our Story,” Chosen People Ministries, https://www.chosenpeople.com/our -mission/our-story/; Jeremiah, Handwriting on the Wall, 185.
6. Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (Cambridge, UK: J. Darby and T. Browne, 1733), see chapter 10, “Of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.”
7. Bill Creasy, Daniel, 2nd ed. (recorded lectures), (UCLA: Logos Bible Study, 2014), Audible, 4.58.00, https://www.audible.com/pd/Daniel -Audiobook/B005FR6M8C.
8. Hitchcock, The End, 68

Excerpted with permission from What Happens Next by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

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Your Turn

Do you wonder if we’re in the End Times now? Or what’s going to happen next? Or what the Bible says about what’s to come? Don’t be afraid! Jesus is fully in control of history and what will come! ~ Devotionals Daily