Prophesy and Grace

[ps49]

Recently I've been spending a lot of time studying Daniel's prophecies. Today I was reading the Gospel of Matthew and these two verses from chapter 18 therefore struck me:-

Matt 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Is Jesus placing a literal limit of seventy seven times that we should forgive our brothers' trespasses? Or is this actually a veiled reference to Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy:-

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

The prophecy appears as an ultimatum; a period of 490 years grace for Israel to achieve the specified items of the prophecy. In the end they couldn't do it and by extension, so too the whole of humanity. So our Lord saw fit to do it for them and in the event to use their prophesised failure to graft also the gentiles into the true vine - The Spirit behind the Law, not the Law itself?

So then, going back to Peter's question regards our everyday interpersonal relations. Does our Lord's answer simply refer to the fact that the terms of the Old Covenant of Moses were shortly coming to an end as per the 70 weeks prophecy? That grace shall abound and where there is grace there is always forgiveness for those who truly believe and therefore repent?

I'm just throwing the subject out for discussion as it has been occupying my mind a for a time.

[PeteWaldo]

I think the Judeo-Christian category may be more appropriate for this.

[ps49]

Ah, for some reason I ended up copying the Matthew verses from the New International Version - not my favourite. From the New King James Version it is rendered like this:-

Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

"Seventy times seven," not "seventy-seven times". In most versions it is rendered similarly to the NKJV. I'm not sure why the NIV renders it differently.