What Happened to Israel?
Lo-ammi - Daniel's Seventy Weeks

There were periods in Israel's history when they were Lo-ammi. This refers to Hosea 1:9.

"Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God".

These periods are not computed in the prophetic clock, and so far as God is concerned, do not exist for the completion of prophecy. For example, there were five occasions when God 'sold' His people into the hands of their enemies, and for these five seasons the prophetic clock stopped and time was reckoned by man only. These five occasions are found in the book of Judges.

Judges 3:8 Mesopotamia 8 years Lo-ammi
Judges 3:14 Moab         18 years Lo-ammi
Judges 4:3 Canaan        20 years Lo-ammi
Judges 6:1 Midian           7 years Lo-ammi
Judges 13:1 Philistine    40 years Lo-ammi
                                    93 years Lo-ammi

This removes a man made discrepancy between the statement of 1 Kings   6:1 and the reckoning from Exodus to the beginning of the Temple as recorded in Acts 13:17-22.

Man's time (Exodus to Temple beginning)     573 years
Ammi Statement of 1 Kings 6:1                   480 years
                                                                  93 years

 

We are now in a Lo-ammi period which has lasted almost 2000 years during which Israel has been cut off, so this concept is easy to grasp. Application of this concept makes it possible to reconcile the seventy weeks of Daniel's vision with the known history of Israel.

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city." Daniel 9:24.

This emphasis is upon Israel and Jerusalem, not the church.

These seventy weeks are the total time remaining for God's prophetic clock to run, and this time is peculiar to Israel and Jerusalem, the word "determined" means "to cut off', and God has cut this time off from man's reckoning. The clock has stopped, but when God resumes His purposes with Israel, the clock will begin its final sweep.

Events to take place in the seventy weeks include:
To finish transgression
To make an end of sins
To make reconciliation for iniquity
To bring in everlasting righteousness
To seal up the vision & prophecy
To anoint the most holy.

The angel appears to divide the seventy weeks in two.

"From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to

build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,

threescore and two weeks". Daniel 9:25.

This distinction must not be overlooked. There was a period of seven weeks from the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until "the street and wall be built again".  There was a period of 62 x 7 years from the completion of rebuilding to the cutting off of Messiah. This at first sight, allows the following line graph to be compiled. Remember Daniel's prayer followed his calculation of the years to be accomplished concerning Jerusalem Daniel 9:2, thus a week=7 years not days.

Note that the last of the seventy weeks is divided into two parts, which agrees with Revelation. See Daniel 7:25, 9:27, 12:7 and compare with Revelation 11:2-3, 12:6, 14 where three and a half years, forty two months and twelve hundred and sixty days form a common link.

Israel were not put aside, or cut off at the cross as is generally held. The Lord Jesus procured a further period of Grace with His prayer "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Luke 23:4. The Holy Spirit confirms this. Acts 3:12-13, 23:6-7, 28:20, Romans 11:1-2, 16-17.

The Book of Acts covers a period of about thirty five years, but there is no suggestion that the final week of Daniel's vision was fulfilled during this time, and yet it must have been if the seventy weeks are reckoned from the time of the decree to rebuild.

Israel, The Temple and the Land are together when Israel are God's people. Israel is out of the Land, and its Temple destroyed, or in ruins when they are Lo-ammi. During the seven weeks from the command to restore to the completion of the work Israel were Lo-ammi. This is suggested from the following passages;

Nehemiah              1:3      "great affliction and reproach"

Daniel                    9:2      "desolations"
                            
                             9:7      "confusion with faces", "driven to
                                        countries", "trespass against Thee"

9:10     "not obeyed", "not walked"

9:11    "curse poured out upon us"

9:12    "great evil"

These passages strongly suggest that Israel were Lo-ammi, or "not my people" until the Temple was dedicated. Thus the first seven weeks (49 years) are not to be reckoned in the total seventy weeks.

From the dedication of the Temple there are 62 x 7 years to AD29, when Messiah was cut off. There are then 8x7 years remaining. From the crucifixion to the end of Acts (when Israel was finally set aside, but not cast away for ever) is 35 years (5 x 7 years) which leaves 21 years (3x7 years). Approximately?

The line graph below may now be compiled.

One cannot help noticing in Revelation and elsewhere, the distinction that returns between Israel and the other nations when Israel once again become God's people. During the present age of grace we have the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When He resume His purposes with Israel He will be the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our Fathers (Acts 3:13). Our fathers, does not refer to the fathers of us gentiles, we don't have fathers in the scriptural scheme of things. See Romans 9:4-5.

If the Lo-ammi principle is not applied, then the final seven (including the final horrific three and a half years) would have passed before AD36 and the remaining 29 years of the Book of Acts would not have been completed.

Acts 28:20 shows that God was still dealing with Israel and so the Acts period must be included in the seventy weeks. During the Acts period Paul taught;

"none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:"Acts 26:20.

Paul's writings during the Acts are linked with Israel and contain nearly 300 quotes from the Old Testament.

In stark contrast, the epistles written after Israel was set aside and the Secret revealed, contain only eight quotes from the Old Testament.

The period from the end of Acts up to the present is not part of Daniel's vision.

When this present age ends, THEN the final three weeks of the vision will begin.

Paul had two ministries. Acts 26:16. A comparison of his writings from these ministries will show that the first relates to Israel, while the second relates to a time when Israel is Lo-ammi. To Paul was revealed the Secret which was hidden away from ages and generations. Colossians 1:25, Ephesians 3:9. The present age in which Israel is Lo-ammi is the age of the Secret or the dispensation of the grace of God, and it is this age which will close to usher in the final part of Daniel's vision. Then Israel will be God's people again and all His promises to and for them will be fulfilled,

   "for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
                                                             Romans 11:29