The PDF of the PowerPoint used to make the video above.

The year of the above edict, Nehemiah tells us, was the 20th year of Artaxerxes. -

Nehemiah 2:1

*And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

Artaxerxes reigned from 465 B.C. to 425 B.C. This date is very well established in secular history. The 20th year of Artaxerxes and the edict to rebuild Jerusalem was therefore in 445 B.C. Nehemiah pinpointed the time further by giving us the Hebrew month in which this event occurred. He had set wine before the king and received the famous edict in the Passover month of Nisanof that year.

So astronomically we have a very good time fix. We know when Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks began. It was early in the month of Nisan. Nisan is the first month that presents a full moon after the spring equinox. We know this because that is how the rabbis determined the Passover month of Nisan and thus regulated their calendar every year. And we may well suppose that it was in the first days of that month, at the time of the new moon when kings traditionally make royal edicts. We know from astronomical data just when that moon came through in that crucial year of 445 B.C..

The Seventy Weeks prophecy is directed at Daniel's holy people,

the saints of the Eternal God.

But significantly it was also directed at the holy city of Jerusalem.

And when the edict was delivered to Nehemiah, the permission to restore and rebuild Jerusalem had finally come. The stopwatch for the 70 weeks had been pressed. And the time was ticking off.


The next stop? It would be the terminus of the 69 weeks.
And the event? The 69 weeks would terminate with the first coming of Messiah the Prince.

It was a wonderful moment for Nehemiah and the ones returning with him! The edict was in Nehemiah's hand. He immediately proceeded with plans to lead this great party of returning Jews back to restore the city of Jerusalem. The details of the ensuing expedition has been laid out for us in the book of Nehemiah.

And so the final seventy weeks of God's determined dealings with His covenant people were off and running. But that was not all. With this edict the Gentile powers had now covered, protected also laid a certain claim to the sovereignty of Jerusalem. The 70 weeks of Daniel are in two time segments. The first 69 weeks terminate with the first-coming of Messiah. And the latter day 70th week, terminates with the second coming of Messiah. Indeed, the 70 weeks terminate in a highly significant threshold of holy history. They wrap up the Times of the Gentiles.

The edict Artaxerxes had given Nehemiah was far reaching in its implications. The authority had been given to restore Jerusalem and provide a homeland for the Jewish exiles. The "time determined" or "cut out of time", "set apart" for God's Holy Purposes had now begun.

1. The Holy City of Jerusalem had entered into the promise of a new era.
2. And God's holy people were also now in the process of entering into in a new era.

Things were different now. The city of Jerusalem was no longer a ruin. And the people of God, (the House of Judah at least), would no longer be scattered and without cover. The Holy City and the Holy People were now living subject to the good pleasure of the Gentile superpowers. The"Times of the Gentiles"(Luke 21:24) were now an established reality. The domination of those gentile nations would continue on until the terminus of the 70 weeks and the climax of the age.

Jesus said that Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles.....
For how long?

...... until the 'Times of the Gentiles' was fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)
And then Messiah would come.