Daniel 9:20–24 describes Daniel’s prayer of confession and God’s response through the angel Gabriel, introducing the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks and God’s plan to deal with sin and restore righteousness.
This morning if you have your Bibles it will turn with me to Daniel We want to look at Daniel chapter 9 and we’re going to be looking at the first portion where we left off at chapter 9 beginning at verse 20.
Historical Context of Daniel 9
- The urgency of repentance and prayer
The setting the background for this again Daniel is then in Babylon. He was taken away to Babylon and now he is in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. As you look at this Daniel has seen what Henry Longfellow was writing in his poem. He was writing in his poem about the civil war that was going on. I shared this on Wednesday night. The civil war that was going on and he had a son in the civil war. There had been brother fighting brother At that time before the civil war there had been a revival that had occurred in America. It claimed to be a Christian nation but; yet, now it was tore apart by war. it was a bloody war and an awful war. People didn’t know why this was happening. Much the same that happened during the time of Daniel.
The nation of Israel had been really a nation that God had established and created. No other nation on earth was created by the Lord. The Lord brought them in and gave them his land. It was not a land that belonged to any other nation, it belonged to the Lord and as the center of this nation was his mountain. You can go back throughout the Old Testament and you’ll see that God did some amazing things on that mountain.
Abraham had been told to go and sacrifice Isaac there which was really a test of Abraham’s faith. And also a means to show that God was the one that would make provision for deliverance. Abraham did not have to sacrifice Isaac for the Lord provided the ram.
It was there that David had brought the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. It was there that Solomon had built his temple. It was on Mount Zion that we know that the Lord will return one day. He shall rule and reign from the throne of David and he shall also establish his worship center as the temple on the Temple Mount.
Israel at the time of Daniel had Judah. Jerusalem was part of Judah. The Temple Mount was part of Judah. The Temple was part of Judah; yet, God appeared to have turned his back on Judah. Allowed judgment to come. As those of you who have been with us on the study of Ezekiel. We saw that Ezekiel was told by the Lord to lay down. He was told to place a piece of iron between himself and this little mount and city of Jerusalem. He was told to construct showing that God was not going to deliver them. But rather their captivity was real.
Daniel has come and he’s been given a vision of what’s going to happen in the last days. He’s been given a vision of four empires that will rise. And they will rise and fall. And then a fifth will come which will last eternally. He’s been given this vision.
We’re going to begin looking at the 70 weeks of Daniel today. That are part of this vision which speaks how God is dealing with the people of Israel. The people of Jerusalem. The Jewish people. His nation, the one that he established.
We’re going to be looking at the beginning of that. We’re not going to get in depth into the 70 weeks today, but we’re going to just give a little bit of an overview of it this morning. Then next week we’ll get into greater depth. So let’s begin reading at Daniel
Let’s begin at chapter 9 verse 20.
And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; 21 yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Daniel 9:20–24
Prayer
The only Father to come before you this morning. Lord I pray that you would just help us understand the depth of your word and the depth of your promises. And the day in which we are living. And Lord we are beginning to see all of this happen before our eyes. Lord, I pray now that you would just be with us. Speak to us through your word and give us a greater understanding. This we would ask in Jesus name, Amen
Someone had written to me. Their question was, “How can the world be so messed up. So much evil and so much wickedness; yet, God be in control. That’s a question that a lot of times people have. And it’s interesting. It’s a question that probably Daniel had because he was looking at the fact that he’d been taken away into captivity in Babylon. He’d seen Babylon fall. He’d seen the Medes and the Persians come to power. And to all of this Israel had been destroyed by the Babylonians. The temple had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The instruments of the temple had been taken back to Babylon. He’s going, where’s God in all this? He prayed.
Now, I want you to understand one of the things about Daniel’s prayer. If you notice it and we studied it a little bit a couple weeks ago. Daniel’s prayer began with what is the problem. The problem is the sin of Israel that they had sinned against the God that had called them. That had revealed himself to them. That had given them all these things and had loved them. Had called them his wife. And they had gone a whoring after false gods Instead of pursuing the true and the living God that had showed them nothing but love. Nothing but compassion, nothing but gifts. Given them nothing. But that which was truth; yet, they abandoned that. And embraced the lies.
Daniel began this particular time in prayer asking God’s forgiveness for their sin. Not only their sin but his sin. He was still in prayer about this when Gabriel appeared. It’s interesting as Gabriel appears. He comes to bring Daniel a special message. A message of hope. Not only for the nation of Israel. Not only for the Jewish people but for the whole world. The fact is he’s showing that no matter how rebellious and sinful man becomes. No matter how much evil Satan hoists upon the world and tempts men to get involved with. God’s in control. Because God’s plans will not be thwarted by the sin of men. And the first three things that you can see there as we look at this. Are three things are: the sovereignty of God;, the sin of God’s people; and the plan of God’s deliverance. Through the setting up of his kingdom.
These things are brought to Daniel’s attention. In the opening statement that Gabriel makes to him. And he says all of this event is going to hinge around a period of time that he refers to as 70 weeks. Now later on in Daniel and later on in the study will prove that these are 70 weeks of years And so there’s seven days in a week so if that’s seven years and there’s 70 weeks. That’s 490 years. And there’s a specific purpose that God has put in this 490 year period. This 490 year period is to deal with the sin of Israel. But not only will he deal with the sin of Israel through his grace and mercy. He’s going to come and bring the gospel to the Gentiles in the midst of this 490 year period.
Look at this it’s very interesting because a lot of people today have a wrong perspective of the sovereignty of God . They think that God being sovereign means man has no choice. Man can’t make choices, man can’t do anything. That’s not in the Bible either. The Bible tells us an amazing thing.
It says that we were created in the image of God. Being created in the image of God. God made us different than any of the other animals of his creation. We’re not an animal because we’re created in his image. But what was in our lives was a unique ability that he gave to us as moral beings. He gave us the ability to discern good and evil right and wrong. And then he placed before Adam, in the garden of Eden, the ability to take care of all of this.
Adam was to take care of the knowledge of good and evil. But he was told not to eat of the fruit of that tree. He could eat of any other fruit, he could go any other place, he could do any other thing. God only told him one thing he could not do That was to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil
Adam had a choice to make. As a moral being he could choose what was right or he could choose what was wrong. Adam was wrong, and he ate of that fruit and it opened up to the world the impact of the consequences of a wrong choice, a wrong moral choice. Ever since then, every man, woman, and child that’s lived has the ability to choose right or wrong. That which is immoral, to do what God would call us to do or to rebel against him.
Now, Israel had a unique position. As I mentioned at the beginning of the message, Israel had been established by God as a nation, no other nation had. He had called them as a people He gave to them his law, his word, the revelation of his plan for the redemption. Not only of their sins and their lives, but for the redemption of the whole world.He laid it out for them in Genesis through the end of what we refer to as the Old Testament through what the prophets. Yet when they saw it all, what they did is they constantly chose to rebel against him. And oftentimes they would rebel, and as God loved them, it’s just like what you do with a child
You love your child, so you discipline your child. If you didn’t love your child, you would let your child do and have absolute destruction in their lives, but instead you try and guide and direct them by disciplining and bringing discipline and chastisement into their lives, and that’s what God does with Israel.
That’s what He’s doing at the time that Daniel is taken into captivity. The Word of God tells us that. We read in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Ezekiel, and we read about how God used the nations of Assyria and used the nation of Babylon to chastise Israel to help them to see their need to turn back to Him.
So God, in His sovereignty, didn’t force them to choose Him, just like He did not force Adam to choose Him. But when the choices were wrong, chastisement came, because He loved them. The second thing that we see, this chastisement came because of the sins of the people.
It’s interesting in Zechariah 12, 10-13, we read the following,
“10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13 the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; 14 all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadad, Rimmon, in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself, their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself, their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves, and the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves. In that day a mountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Zechariah 12, 10, 13-1. We see here that there is coming a day where Israel is going to see her sin, and she is going to be broken because of her sin as she sees the Redeemer who came to deliver them. Romans chapter 11 says the following:
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.
I want you to tell you today, there is a whole bunch of people, especially in the church of Jesus Christ, that says the Jews have been cast away, the church has replaced Israel. Paul just got done saying, no, he hasn’t. Zechariah revealed, no, it wouldn’t happen that in the last days they are going to see Jesus, they are going to realize who He is, He is their Messiah, and they are going to weep.
So why is the church doing what it is doing today and saying that God is done with Israel? There are 490 weeks that God was going to put upon the nation of Israel because of their sin. Sin, in the word there, specifically means rebellion, because of their rebellion. They had rebelled against God.
There was a period of time, 70 weeks or 7, 490 years that it was going to take to do this. Paul is addressing those who would say, well, God is done with Israel. Well, the plan hadn’t been completed.
If the plan hadn’t been completed that he told Daniel that was going to happen, then God isn’t God. Then God isn’t sovereign. Then the sins of Israel and the sins of this world got in the way of God’s plan so He couldn’t complete it and He’s going to be stifled and He won’t be able to do it.
That’s not what God says. God says it will be done. It’s interesting, in spite of our sin, God reveals Himself in even more powerful ways.
That in spite of Israel’s rebellion to Him to the point of embracing false gods, establishing false worship in the temple, God said, I’m not done with you. Because I said I wouldn’t be done with you.And they could not get in the way.
Satan attempted to use that to stifle God’s sovereignty, but he couldn’t. Because God will fulfill His purpose. And Paul tells us in Romans 11, I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?
But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. Romans 11, verse 11.
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
In verse 25, He says, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And we’re going to see when we get into the 70 weeks of Daniel that there’s a period of time where God pauses this 490 days of years. 490 years, rather. That pause is when the gospel is brought to you and I. And He told Abraham and He told Isaac, which we studied a couple weeks ago, and Jacob, and revealed to them that the world would be blessed through them. And the world would be blessed as we saw and looked at the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David. That the Messiah would come through that line.
And it would be blessed as the Messiah would come. And that Jesus came to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. And you and I are sitting here today as people who are not Jewish, but are believers in the Jewish Messiah.
The Jewish Messiah redeemed us. And He delivered us from our sins and He made us His adopted children. Paul goes on and he says that in verse 26 and 27, And so all Israel will be saved as it is written, The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, For this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.
So when people say that God has done with the Jews today, and Israel is the problem of the whole world, and Jews are the ones that should be blamed for everything, and that the Christian church has replaced Israel, and that Christians are the new Jews. It’s a lie. It’s right in God’s Word.
He’s not done. And He has done this for our sake. That we could be redeemed.
That you and I could be saved. Now, Daniel, it’s revealed to him, that in verse 24 it says, And His power shall be mighty, but not by His own power, but He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and destroy the mighty and the holy people. I’m sorry, I got ahead of myself.
But the thing is, we see here that the Lord is going to use all of these circumstances to reveal Himself, and His sovereignty is maintained. In spite of the sin of His people. In spite of your and my sin.
In spite of a whole world that’s going to turn against God. Now it’s interesting as you look at the last days, a lot of people say, well, the church is Israel. But do you realize that in the last days, the Bible talks about, and we’ll see that in greater depth, that there’s coming One who will pretend to be the Messiah.