The King of Kingdoms - The Book of Daniel
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
March 23, 2025 :: Daniel 9:1-27
Daniel chapter 9 is a little different.
It’s definitely the same book, but it has a different feel to it than what has come before.
For one, it doesn’t start with a problem or a vision. It doesn’t have one of those classic Bible story problems like we saw so many times in the first half of the book. A king, a dream, a threat (chapters 1-6). And it doesn’t start with one of those wild and crazy apocalyptic visions like we’ve seen so far in the second half of the book (chapters 7 and 8).
It’s still very prophetic, as we’ll see at the enigmatic end of the chapter, but Daniel 9 is different.
It’s mainly a long prayer. The wiseman Daniel records for us what he prayed one day in 539 BC. And the wild and wonderful way that God answered that prayer.
We have a very long title for today’s message. I tried to keep up the pattern of the last seven sermons and pick a name for God that this chapter was all about, but I just couldn’t settle on one. Because this chapter is so full of names for God! So many! Including God’s covenant name, Yahweh, which hasn’t shown up yet in this book. It shows up 8 times in this chapter! And so do another names, “Adonai” and “Elohim” especially, in various combinations.
Daniel knows Whom he is talking to. And he has some big things to ask God to do. Our title comes from the last verse that Keagan read to us. Verse 19. The word “Lord” in Hebrew there is “Adonai.”
“O Lord, Listen! O Lord, Forgive! O Lord, Hear and Act!”
You can tell that this is prayer of desperation and dependance, and I think it is a model for us today. Let’s start in verse 1.
“In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom–in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD [Yahweh] given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years” (vv.1-2).
Daniel gives us a date for this prayer. It was about 539BC. King Darius the Mede (son of Xerxes), [or the Hebrew there is “Ahasuerus” but not the one from the book of Esther.] was in his first year.
Where have we met this king before? What chapter? Darius showed up at the very end of chapter 5 on the night that the Babylonian king Belshazzar was killed, Darius took over. October 539BC.
Darius the Mede was the king put in charge of Babylon in the days of the high king Cyrus of the Persians. And he’s the king that reluctantly threw Daniel to the lions in chapter 6.
Remember what Daniel was doing that got him into that trouble? Daniel was praying. Three times a day, Daniel was praying at his open window, facing Jerusalem. He was about how old? Anybody remember? Eighty years old. Getting down on his knees.
Well, about that time, Daniel was studying his Bible and he came to understand that according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah that the desolation of his beloved Jerusalem was nearly over!
Isn’t that amazing? First off, that he had a copy of Jeremiah! Daniel might have heard Jeremiah preaching back when he was a child in Jerusalem. Jeremiah preached for 40 years. He had prophesied for about 22 years before Daniel was drug off to Babylon. But Jeremiah didn’t finish his book of prophecies until at least 20 years after Daniel had been taken in captivity!
However, a copy of Jeremiah has made it to old Daniel’s hands, and he’s reading it. And he’s studying it. And he’s praying it.
“Hey, this scroll says, that our exile in Babylon is going to last 70 years.”
Do you remember that from when we studied Jeremiah together a few years ago? Listen to what he says in Jeremiah 25:
“Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: ‘Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ‘But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will make it desolate forever. I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands’ (Jer. 25:8-14).
Daniel says, “I think the 70 years are about up.” Daniel has been in Babylon for 66 years. That’s pretty close to 70!
And few chapters later, Daniel read this in the beloved Jeremiah chapter 29:
“This is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile’” (Jer. 29:10-15).
So Daniel says, “I guess we better start praying!”
Do you ever wonder, “Why bother praying if God has already decided and even already said what He was going to do?” Daniel doesn’t feel that way at all. He prays because God has said what He is going to do. And because God has said that prayer is one of things He’s going to use to do it!
The LORD said, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity.”
And Daniel says, “Okay. Let’s pray! Let’s go!”
Dare to be a Daniel and pray the Bible back to God! Verse 3.
“So I turned to the Lord God (“Adonai-Elohim”) and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. [He’s serious about this. Eighty-year-old man wearing scratchy sackcloth and pouring ashes on his head.] I prayed to the LORD my God (“Yahweh-Elohim”) and confessed: ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong” (vv.3-5a).
Notice that Daniel starts with adoration. He starts his prayer with how great and awesome God is. That’s always a good place to start. It’s okay to start with our problems and our needs, especially if we’re in a jam. But Daniel recognizes that his people are in desperate trouble, and he starts with how awesome their God is. “Hallowed be your name! You’re a covenant keeper. You are great and righteous!”
And then he turns to lament and confession. V.5.
“We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame–the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you” (vv.5-7).
Do we pray like this? Not very often.
Notice that Daniel identifies closely with his people. He doesn’t say, “Those people over there have sinned. They are really bad.” He could! That’s true. In many ways, Daniel didn’t even personally participate in some of the sins that he’s confessing right here. But he does it anyway. He knows he’s connected. And he knows that he’s not innocent.
Isn’t this different from the rest of the book so far?
I mean in the first 8 chapters, the Jews have been the good guys, and the pagan Gentiles king and all have been the bad guys.
You know how in the old cowboy movies you could tell who the good guys were because they wore white hats and the bad guys wore the black hats? Well, so far in the book of Daniel, the Gentile pagan empires that ruled over the Jews clearly were the ones with the black hats, and the Jews were clearly the ones with the white hats.
But in chapter 9, Daniel prays revealing that he knows that the Jews are in this predicament because they are black hat people, too.
The whole reason they were in Babylon was not because Babylon was so great and powerful, but because Yahweh kept His promise, kept His threat to send them into exile if they wouldn’t stop their sinning. Verse 8.
“O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. ‘Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you” (vv.8-11).
He doesn’t blame the pagans for their predicament. He doesn’t blame some people far away. He says, “We.”
I think that’s powerful. I’m very tempted to blame all of my problems on somebody else. We love to do that in America, too. We blame the “other” political party than “ours” for everything. They are the problem! But Daniel says, “We.”
“[W]e have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets.”
They were “a broken record about a broken covenant.” “Jeremiah told us. Isaiah told us. Elijah told us. Elisha told us. But we did not listen. And God told us what would happen if we did not listen! He told us back in Leviticus (26) and Deuteronomy (28) what would happen if we did not listen. Exile! And that’s exactly what He did.” Verse 12.
“You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. [Read Lamentations!] Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. [We still haven’t learned our lesson. So we might not get excused when the 70 years are up?!] The LORD [Yahweh] did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him” (vv.12-14).
Daniel knows why they are in Babylon. He has not forgotten why they are in Babylon. It’s because of Who God is. He is righteous. He is holy. He keeps His promises, and that means that He keeps His threats.
And so Daniel prays. And he prays. And he prays. Three times a day with the windows open, facing towards Jerusalem. Daniel is not worried about whether he’ll get eaten by lions. He’s worried his people will not repent and be restored to the land!
So he’s repenting and praying that they will be restored to the land. Daniel asks God to forgive Israel.
And notice how he does it. Look at verse 15.
“‘Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
‘Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. [Daniel is 600 some miles away, and he’s pleading for Jerusalem.] We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name’” (vv.15-19).
Do you hear it? What does Daniel use for an argument when he asks God to forgive and restore his people? Why should He?! Is it because Israel is so wonderful? Is it because Israel is so righteous? “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous!” As if!
But why? For God’s own sake! For God’s own name. For God’s own reputation. Daniel says, “You are so merciful. You brought us up out of Egypt. You love to save! You love to forgive. You’re famous for it! This city and these people bear your Name.”
Daniel prays based on the name and character and reputation of God Himself. Daniel knows how God loves His own glory and will always in act in accordance with it. So he prays based on God’s glory.
Dare to be a Daniel and ask God to do great things based on God’s great glory!
He says, “For your sake!” “Do these things for us for your own sake.”
Do we pray that way? We definitely should. Because God does care deeply about His own glory. We’re not tricking Him when we do this. We aren’t demanding anything based on His glory. We aren’t in a position to demand anything. But we plead His character. We plead His name. We plead His heart back to Him, and...He answers.
I’ve got three points this morning, and they are will be very obvious, and they are very wonderful.
#1. THE LORD DOES LISTEN.
Daniel prays like this because he knows God hears and responds. God is not impassive or uncaring or unfeeling. od is a Rock because He’s dependable, but He’s a Rock Who listens. And answers!
Do you know how God answered this prayer of Daniel’s? Within a year of Daniel’s prayer, the High King of Persia, King Cyrus issued a decree that the Jews could go home. They were allowed to leave Babylon and head back to Israel if they wanted to. About 50,000 of them did. Read about it in the Book of Ezra, especially chapters 1 and 2. Ezra makes it clear that it was because God moved in Cyrus’ heart that they were allowed to go home. In order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.
And you know what else they were allowed to take home with them? The gold and silver articles that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple and Belshazzar had partied with! The Lord does listen.
And that’s not all. That’s not the half of it. Look at verse 20 to see how the Lord responded to Daniel’s prayer! V.20
“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill–while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice” (vv.20-21).
“Well, hello, Gabriel! Welcome back.”
It’s been over a decade since the vision of chapter 8. And all of a sudden, the angel Gabriel has shown up again looking like a man. It’s not even clear if this is a vision or a visitation–like he will do a few hundred years to a virgin named Mary.
I love this picture of Gabriel in motion while Daniel is praying! Zooming in. “Swift flight.” [Some versions have “in my extreme weakness” in verse 21, and that’s quite a possible translation of the Hebrew based upon a different understanding of the underlying root word. That would indicate how wiped out Daniel was with his serious prayers. But regardless, Gabriel swoops in and shows up, while Daniel was praying.] Listen to what he says. Verse 22.
“[Gabriel] instructed me and said to me, ‘Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:”
The Lord does listen!
I’m not saying that this is how all prayers work. Like as soon as we begin to pray, God is sending someone to do something about it. And even if it is, it doesn’t seem that way. We will often have to wait. But it shows how responsive God can be, and that He’s listening.
And look at what Gabriel says about how God sees Daniel. “You are highly esteemed.” “You are treasured. You are beloved. You are precious to God.”
I don’t know about you, but that gives me great incentive to pray.
PRAY.
This gives me great incentive to get serious about praying. To get on my knees. I’ve been kneeling more when I pray since reading chapter 6. I want to do it more.
This gives me great incentive to pray the scriptures back to God. Daniel read Jeremiah and started to pray Jeremiah back to God. We can do that, too! Whatever you are reading in your daily time in the Bible, you can just turn that back around and aim it back at God. So if you are reading 1 John, for example. And it says, “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). And you get on your knees and say, “Lord, I have sinned in this way and this way today. But you are faithful and just. Please forgive me of these sins and purify me from all unrighteousness.”
Dare to be a Daniel and pray the Scriptures back at God.
He would love it!
And dare to be a Daniel and pray for God’s sake.
We can present our requests to God and argue for them based on how they would bring God glory.
What’s something that you are praying for right now? When you pray for it, tie your request to how answering that request might bring God glory. How it might show His character and reveal His heart. If you can’t think of any way that it would bring Him glory, then you probably shouldn’t be praying for it in the first place.
If you can’t say, “Please do this for your name’s sake,” then don’t ask for it. But if you can, then do! Because the Lord does listen.
Maybe you’re praying for a new job.
Maybe you’re praying for a relationship to be restored.
Maybe you’re praying for healing.
Maybe you’re praying for the breaking of a sinful habit.
I can see how any of those could bring God glory. Let’s pray for them. Because the Lord does listen.
#2. THE LORD DOES FORGIVE.
Daniel knew that! Daniel knew that the Lord delights in showing mercy. He said it in verse 9. That’s like part of His name that He revealed to Moses. “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exod. 34:6-7).
Daniel knew that he wasn’t praying to some implacable god Who would not respond in grace when His people turned away from their sin and turn to Him.
No, Daniel knew that God was rich in mercy (Ephesians 2) and delights to forgive His people when they repent.
REPENT.
Dare to be a Daniel and pray prayers of repentance and confession.
Dare to be a Daniel and ask God for mercy and grace.
Daniel has not lost sight of why his people are in this predicament, but we often do. It’s so hard sometimes to see our own sin. Our own complicity. Our own duplicity. This chapter encourages you and me to own up to our own black hats.
We don’t have to wear sackcloth and ashes. Though it might be a good idea from time to time to fast to intensify our prayers of repentance. But we should take stock of our actions and attitudes and confess them to the Lord.
And we should, at some level, confess our connection to the sins of the wider church. Daniel (v.20) confessed his own sin and the sin of his people. And that’s probably a model for us, as well. Confessing the sins of “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” that have at times crept into the church and been unchecked (see Galatians 5:19-21). Maybe we didn’t do those things ourselves. But we are connected to those who have.
And we confess them and ask for God’s forgiveness. And we are assured of His pardon! Because we know we are loved. We know that we are, like Daniel, “highly esteemed.” We are beloved. We are, because of Jesus, God’s “chosen people, holy and dearly loved” (Colossians 3:12).
It’s because were are loved that we can repent! And know that we will be forgiven.
What do you need to confess to the Lord today?
Hear the word of LORD: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:11-13).
Seek Him with all your heart. Give him the darkest, ugliest parts of your heart. And you will find grace!
Because He wants to give us grace more than we want to ask for it! He wants to deal with our sin much more than we do!
That is, in fact, part of the big point of the last four verses in this chapter, the prophecy that Gabriel brought with him to Daniel.
God sent Gabriel (v.22) to bring Daniel “insight and understanding.” He’s got another message and vision for Daniel.
And, like the rest of this chapter, it’s a little different. It’s all words. It’s not nightmarish images that fill Daniel’s mind. No IMAX this time. Which is less scary, but it’s even more difficult to interpret!
In fact, a lot of the commentaries I read this week said that these may be the four hardest verses in the whole Old Testament to interpret. Whole books have been written on just these four verses! One book I read had 8 different views on the interpretation of this section with a chart of all the details that stretched to 6 pages long!
But, thankfully, I have it all figured out, and I have the definitive 9th view to share with you today. (Just kidding!)
I did think that I could kind of master the different views and give you a run down on all of them, but it was too much for me to process and to keep straight in my head, and I’m sure I would get you lost.
Some things are very clear to me, but others are not at all.
So, this is where we need to again pull out the helpful phrase: “I don’t know, and that’s okay.” Actually, it might be better to say, “I’m not sure, and that’s okay.”
Now, some of you may be sure, and that’s okay, too. Some of you have studied this and have settled conclusions on what all is going on here. And that’s great.
But you shouldn’t be surprised if we’re not all there yet. Because Bible-believing Christians have disagreed about the details in this section for a very long time. And what seems obvious to you doesn’t always seem obvious to everyone else.
I want to encourage everyone to study this passage in depth. It’s God’s Word and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that we are fully equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). Don’t be afraid to study this!
But don’t be surprised if it takes a long time and a lot of study to reach satisfying conclusions.
Because we’re back to the problem of identification. There is no “this is that” here and “who is who.” I think that Gabriel may be actually somewhat enigmatic on purpose so Daniel gets the major outline, but the details get filled in over time so that some day we all look back and say, “Oh, that’s what God was saying in Daniel 9.”
Let’s read it. Verses 24 through 27. Gabriel says, “Consider the message and understand the vision...”
“‘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. ‘Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him’” (vv.24-27).
Here’s point number three and last. (I’m sure you’ve guessed it already.)
#3. THE LORD DOES ACT.
Daniel pleaded with the LORD in verse 19, “O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.'”
And the Lord sends the message back:
“I’ve got this. I’ve got a plan. And I’m going to do much more than just restore Israel to the land. I’m going to blow your mind with what I’m going to do!”
I think the big message of this vision is that the Lord has a perfect plan for fixing everything on His perfect timetable. And He’s doing it!
The Lord has a perfect plan for fixing everything on His own perfect schedule. And He’s working His plan.
Now, I think that Gabriel, in this vision, has good news and bad news for Daniel.
The good news is that God has a perfect plan and a perfect schedule, and it’s on schedule.
But the bad news that Daniel had to absorb was that it was going to take a lot longer than he feared.
Daniel had asked if the exile would be over in 70 years.
And what did God say? “More like 70 times 7.”
The exile began to end at the 70 year mark, but there was much more discipline and development to come.
Gabriel says (v.24), “Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city...”
Now, that’s confusing, for one thing, because we don’t know what a “seven” is. Some of your versions have the word “week” there.”
The Hebrews had a word like our word a “dozen” that means twelve somethings, but their word means “seven somethings.” It’s the word “shavua.” “A seven.” So a “seven” of days is a week. Right?
So what is this "a seven" of? It doesn’t say!
Now, most interpreters have thought that it must be a “seven” of years. And I think that’s very likely. It was 70 years that Jeremiah was predicting and Daniel was praying about. So this 70 “sevens” might well be 70 “sevens” of years. Like 490 years. But it’s weird. And I think that might point to it being a symbolic. It’s a symbol not a statistic.
So I’m not sure that we should expect this all to happen in exactly 490 literal years from some specific point. It might! It might also be round numbers. Or something else, a figure of completeness.
One reason for “seven” may be sabbatical years. In the Old Testament Law, the land was supposed get rest every seven years, and after every seven of those, they were supposed to have a year of Jubilee. And this would then be a seventy of “sevens” so that would be like a Jubilee of Jubilees! Ten times the Jubilee!
I’m not sure. But I am sure that I shouldn’t be too dogmatic about it. And I’m also sure that I’m supposed to be glad that even though it’s a lot more than 70, it’s still a fixed number!
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed...” There is a plan, and it’s for a fixed and limited time. It’s not going to go on forever. The Lord has a perfect plan for fixing everything on His own perfect schedule. And He’s on schedule!
Look what He’s going to do in, in verse 24.
“Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to [1.] finish transgression, [2] to put an end to sin, [3] to atone for wickedness, [4] to bring in everlasting righteousness, [5] to seal up vision and prophecy and [6] to anoint the most holy.”
Doesn’t that sound wonderful?! Isn’t that everything?! The Lord has a perfect plan to fix everything.
Daniel was asking God to forgive them. God says, “I’m going to forgive them, but I’m going to do something even better! I’m going to finish transgression! I’m going to put an end to sin, I’m going to atone for wickedness!” Sin will be dealt with once and for all! It will not only be paid for but covered over and gone.
I’m going “to bring in everlasting righteousness!” Where everything is righteous all the time and everywhere! Righteousness as far as the eye can see and beyond! Righteousness that never ends!!!
“I’m going to seal up vision and prophecy.” I don’t think that means hide it away. I think that means enact it. Secure it. Make it all come true.
“And I’m going to anoint the most holy.” Which could be the most holy place (like the temple) or most holy person (like the Messiah). [Some of your versions may have already made an interpretive decision on that.]
This is everything! This is all of the promises of the New Covenant that Jeremiah predicted. This is all of what the kingdom of God will be!
This is the kingdom of kingdoms, isn’t it? And Gabriel told Daniel that it’s on the way.
He just has to wait.
WAIT.
The Lord does act, but on His own timetable. So we have to wait.
Now, in verse 25, 26, and 27, Gabriel gives more details of what to expect along the way, but nearly all of them are difficult to identify with precision.
There are time markers. Different sets of “sevens.”
Seven “sevens” = 49.
Sixty two “sevens” = 434
And one “seven” = 7
So that would add up to 490 years [if the "sevens" are years), but with different things happening at different times. And there may be gaps between (or even during) some of the sets of “sevens.” I had my calculator out all week trying to figure out all the numbers!
And there are several different persons listed. And there is so much disagreement about who the particular persons are, in some of the instances, some Christians think a person is Jesus and some other Christians think that same person is the anti-Christ to come! (And many other suggestions.)
And it’s late, so we won’t get into all of that today. Maybe I’ll come back to it next week or teach about in a pop-up class some day.
But it is obvious that the Lord has a plan, isn’t it?
We may not be able to understand all of the details.
When does the seventy “sevens” begin?
Who is the “ruler who will come?”
How does this all relate to the end times?
We may not be able to understand all of the details, but it’s obvious that God does. The Lord has a perfect plan to fix everything on His perfect timetable.
And every Christian believes that this plan centers on one figure in history that we can probably identify in verse 26:
“After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.”
Who do you think that is? The word for Anointed One is “Mashiach.” Or “Messiah.”
It sounds to me a lot like the Person described in Isaiah 53. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken” (vv.7-9).
The Lord has a perfect plan to fix everything on His perfect timetable. And He’s sent His perfect Son to enact it. The King of Kingdoms.
The Lord does act. So we just need to trust in and wait on Him.
That doesn’t mean that we just sit on our hands. Our waiting is active. We stay busy and occupy until He comes.
But we are expectant. Because we know that this chapter is not that different from the rest of the book. Daniel chapter 9 is not primarily about prophetic math but about our prayer-answering Lord.
We know that our Lord does listen to our prayers. He wants to answer them more than we want to pray them.
We know that our Lord does forgive our sins. He wants to forgive them more than we want to confess them! And He sent His own Son to be cut off to atone for them.
We know that our Lord does hear and act. Because He sent us Jesus once, and He will send Him back again soon. Just wait.
***
Messages in This Series:
01. The King's Service - Daniel 1:1-21
02. The God of Heaven - Daniel 2:1-49
[Bonus Message: "No Matter What" - Daniel 3:1-30 from Family Bible Week 2012]
03. The God We Serve - Daniel 3:1-30
04. The King of Heaven - Daniel 4:1-37
05. The Lord of Heaven - Daniel 5:1-31
06. The Living God - Daniel 6:1-28
07. The Ancient of Days - Daniel 7:1-28
