Daniel 9:24

We pray for His return but knowing that only in His mercy and grace does He prolong it. 

God is long-suffering, He loves His creation and wants everyone to have the opportunity to accept the salvation that He offers in Jesus. 

As believers we are the hands and feet that He uses to reach others.

Faith comes by hearing and believing God's promises, "and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17), who has provided a way for our sins to be reconciled and has rescued those who trust in Him… when we seek God for direction and keep His Word, we learn our lives are best ordered by Him. First5 

What if we are invited to live and love from our soft heart—the permission to see the world (this day) through the eyes of our heart. Now. It happens when…
…we allow ourselves to feel, fully and wholly (without a need to defend, justify or explain).
…we allow ourselves to receive love, compassion and kindness without suspicion.
…we are free to embrace an extraordinary core of strength and courage that resides inside of us, now, and let it spill to those around us.

I love this from Raïssa Maritain, “Yesterday I had a good morning. Once again when I recollect myself, I again find the same simple demands of God: gentleness, humility, charity, interior simplicity; nothing else is asked of me. And suddenly I saw clearly why these virtues are demanded, because through them the soul becomes inhabitable for God and for one's neighbor in an intimate and permanent way. They make a pleasant cell of it. Hardness and pride repel, complexity disquiets. But humility and gentleness welcome, and simplicity reassures. The 'passive' virtues have an eminently social character.” (Raïssa Maritain was a Russian-born writer and philosopher.

Leviticus 25:8 ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.

Daniel 9:24

24 “Seventy weeks are determined 

For your people and for your holy city, 

To finish the transgression, 

To make an end of sins, 

To make reconciliation for iniquity, 

To bring in everlasting righteousness, 

To seal up vision and prophecy, 

And to anoint the Most Holy.

The New King James Version

Seventy weeks may also be translated seventy sevens. Many scholars agree that the “sevens” are years, as the 70 years of captivity addressed in verse 2 implies. Leviticus 25:8 speaks of “seven sabbaths of years” this could imply that Israel’s punishment would be multiplied sevenfold. Therefore, an exile of 70 “weeks” would be expected to last for seven times 70 years. Second Chronicles 36:21 suggests that the captivity was to last long enough to make up for 70 omissions of the sabbatical year, which occurred every seven years. This would amount to 490 years before God’s people would experience perfect reconciliation with their God. 

There are many different interpretations of how these years account for the eras of world history before the Second Coming of the Messiah. Some interpreters have suggested that the use of the number seven in this verse is symbolic representing completeness—that is, the completion of all of human history. The NKJV Study Bible

The Hebrew phrase used here (“70 sevens”) is sometimes translated “70 weeks”. 

These words together likely represent “weeks” of years—70 periods of seven, or 490 years. Gabriel reinterprets Jeremiah’s prophecy about the 70 years of exile in Babylon. The precedent had already been established for reinterpreting years as weeks of years based upon Leviticus 25:8. In conjunction with the required Sabbath rest for the land Gabriel specifies an extended period of time for remuneration. Rather than trying to see this as precise chronological data, the 70 weeks should be viewed within the framework of the sevenfold vengeance formula of Leviticus. 

Gabriel indicates that the whole period of exile from inception to temple cleansing is approximated by the 490 years. In this way, those living through the oppression of Antiochus can make sense of the ongoing persecution since the time of Daniel but also know that an end has been decreed. The six consecutive infinitives describe what will take place by the end of the 70 weeks. 

While some believe the events refer to Jesus and His first and second comings, others argue that these events took place before the time of Christ. In the context of Antiochus’ offense and the ensuing rebellion, this phrase likely refers to the cleansing and rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 bc.. Others take this as a foreshadowing of an eschatological event. Faithlife Study Bible

We have, in verses 24–27, one of the most remarkable prophecies of Christ, of his coming and his salvation. The seventy weeks mean a day for a year, or 490 years. About the end of this period a sacrifice would be offered, making full atonement for sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for the complete justification of every believer.

All blessings bestowed on sinful man come through Christ’s atoning sacrifice, who suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Here is our way of access to the throne of grace, and of our entrance to heaven. This seals the sum of prophecy, and confirms the covenant with many; and while we rejoice in the blessings of salvation, we should remember what they cost the Redeemer. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Psalm 45:7 

You love righteousness and hate wickedness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

Isaiah 51:6 

Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

And look on the earth beneath.

For the heavens will vanish away like smoke,

The earth will grow old like a garment,

And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;

But My salvation will be forever,

And My righteousness will not be abolished.