What Daniel 9 brings into the picture of restoration is the destruction of Jerusalem and the appearance of the anointed one. The anointed one is clearly the Christ who was promised. So Israel's restoration is caught up in the Christ event. So what the scriptures are doing here is to interpret historical events and invest them with theological significance. This is the bible interpreting its self. This is not spiritualizing anything at all. This implies that for us to interpret these events in the time of the New covenant. It means that the Old covenant system has been made obsolete, as Hebrews 9-11 tells us. When this happened according to Daniel9, the time of the kingdom would come, everlasting righteousness would be brought in. Now we are in this time spoken of. Except that a mystery has been revealed, the kingdom would be birthed in the wicked age, the kingdom wouldn't come in the way that was expected. To use the language of Jesus it is like a mustard seed that grows and then its fullness comes. We are now in the age in between the wicked age and the age to come. Another way of putting it is that we are in the last hour. We are already in the last days.

What we must look for is self-interpretation from the scriptures. What we will also have to do is integrate Israel's restoration with the restoration of the nations. This in turn must be interpreted in the purposes of God to reverse the curse from all the earth not only from Israel. The story of Israel is in a sense the story of the world. Just as Adam and Eve were exiled from out of the Kingdom of God, namely the Garden of Eden. So Israel will be spewed out of the Kingdom of God, which is the land of Israel. Outside of God's Kingdom is where curse awaits her, just as curse awaits Adam and his sons outside of Gods Kingdom. Here we find in no uncertain terms the threats or curses of the covenant, as well as the promises of blessing, restoration and life. If Israel rebels she will be punished and will bring the curses of the covenant upon herself and this will result in exile from the Promised Land. Also God would put them under foreign rulers as a curse of His covenant.. However God will also be true to his promise to restore them if they will return to him with all their heart. He also promises at that time to circumcise their heart. The context of these promises is very much eschatological, concerning things that will happen in the future. The great surprise Daniel 9 springs on us is that restoration means the inauguration of the Kingdom of God.

The implications of what happens when Israel's exile is ended, is that Israel will be restored. National Israels sins will be forgiven. It is toward this end that the day of atonement looks forward to. As long as Israel doesn't have her fortunes restored she is still in exile. The theme is not only a geographic return to the land, when Israel returned from Babylon, her own kings did not rule over her, she still suffered famine. Even in New Testament times, the glory had not returned to the temple. It was clear that her national sins had not yet been forgiven even though geographical exile had ended she was still in exile because her fortunes had not been restored.

Ezra and Nehemiah acknowledge that they are still slaves, even though they have returned to the land. Israel was still seeking rescue, she was still seeking the promise of restoration. It was toward this end that Israel sought to attain. Obviously not all Jews were in this frame of mind. Many of the Jews saw themselves as not in need of making right with God but said that because they were Gods elect and descended from Abraham they were Gods people and were not in need of repentance. The gospel writers do not portray an Israel who has true allegiance to God. There were the covenantal nomists that thought that descent from Abraham was all it took to be saved as long as you were a more or less good person. There were the ruling parties of the Sadducees and Pharisees. The Sadducees were to a large extent not interested in the hope of Israel, and are portrayed as religious, but did not hold to any hope of resurrection which implies they didn't foresee a day when men would receive eternal life or damnation by the resurrection. On the other hand we have the Pharisees who did believe in resurrection and the kingdom of God. They claimed to be law keepers and to adhere strictly to Moses law. However they are shown to have a man made religion. They do not obey Moses law actually. They add to Gods law their own laws and are found by Jesus not to keep Gods law as they claim.