The Prophecies of Daniel - Part 3
This past week we started looking at Chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel. Daniel is a great example to me.
I previously mentioned that I personally felt that this chapter contained the greatest prophecy in the bible. But that prophecy does not come until the end of the chapter, and too many would simply gloss over what the first 19 verses have to offer. This first portion of chapter 9 is known as Daniel’s Prayer and it starts like this:
1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
Notice that something was revealed to Daniel because he studied the Bible. God purposely did not make everything crystal clear and spoke in parables himself because he wanted us to study to find the true meaning. The bible is like an onion that has all these layers to it and each time we peel one back through studying, something else is revealed. Some things have been there the whole time waiting for us to study and have them revealed. I think this is what happened with Daniel. He had the bible, well, a good portion of the Old Testament up through Ezekiel and Jeremiah who were writing at the same time that Daniel was. And he had an important message revealed to him about his people. To be specific, Daniel was looking at Jeremiah 25:8-12
Can you imagine how excited Daniel must have been? He’s an old man at this point. He’s been in Babylonian captivity since 606 BC and has recently seen the Medes and Persians take over. If he was looking at things correctly, there were only a couple more years to go…so he starts to pray.
When Daniel studied God’s word, he found himself in the center of God’s will and had God’s plans revealed to him, and he started to cry out to God. See what a great example Daniel can be to all of us. If you ever find yourself wondering what God’s will is for your life and you are unsure of where you are heading, start studying His word and he will show you His will.
Side bar: Ever find it interesting that in the center of the bible, in the center of God’s word is the longest chapter of the bible and the subject of it is God’s Word.
Psalm 119:9 9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
Then 119:89 89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Then 119:105 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
Lastly 119:160 160 All your words are true;
all your righteous laws are eternal.
From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 These are just a few of the examples that are in this great Psalm. So remember: go to the center of God’s word to learn about the center of God’s will.
Now back to Daniel’s Prayer starting in verse 4 of chapter 9:
Wait: another side bar from Matthew 6:
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, turn off your cell phones, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
I added a little nugget in there in case you found some of the wording strange.
O.K. Daniel 9:4
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 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.
7 "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. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
Notice that Daniel is not a finger pointer. He doesn’t go into his office and have blamestorming sessions as tends to happen in this day and age. He says ‘WE’. And Daniel, best as we can tell, was a pretty good guy. Even from when he was just a teenager and he asked to refuse the kings food because it went against God’s word (chapter 1). He stayed faithful to God his whole life and yet he still takes the blame for their punishment. When we pray for our own country do we ever say look what these people are doing to this country or do we take the blame like Daniel did and simply ask for God’s mercy. I’m no Daniel and have caught myself praying in the wrong way for this country, for this world. When was the last time that you prayed for God to come into the life of someone like Ahmadinejad or Putin or Quadafi or Abbas. Do we find any feelings of them getting what they deserve. Guess what folks, without the saving grace of knowing Christ as our personal savior, we would all get what we deserve. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
"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. 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. 13 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. 14 The LORD 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.
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. 16 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.
17 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 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."
Notice the passion in the past portion of the prayer with all the verbs used.
The end of Daniel’s prayer makes me think of 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
While Daniel is still in prayer confessing the sins of Israel, the angel Gabriel pays him a visit and says to Daniel:
"Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 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:
First off, how cool would it be for an angel from heaven to show up and let you know that you are highly esteemed…wait…maybe it’s just me that hasn’t. Go ahead, you can tell me. Gabriel follows with what is known as The Seventy “Sevens”:
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.
25 "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. 26 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. 27 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.
What in the world does that mean? Hey, as I mentioned, I think that this is the greatest prophecy in the bible and I feel that how one look at these four verses will affect the way that one sees all of the age of man playing itself out. I think it also affects how we live our lives. And we’re going to spend the next two weeks trying to figure these 4 verses out. That may sound like a lot of time, but there have been people that have spent a lifetime dealing with this passage. Two weeks will not do it justice, but we’ll give it our best shot.
Remember, God has a plan for the entire age of man, and the bible is the playbook.
Until next week, God Bless.
Mike
I previously mentioned that I personally felt that this chapter contained the greatest prophecy in the bible. But that prophecy does not come until the end of the chapter, and too many would simply gloss over what the first 19 verses have to offer. This first portion of chapter 9 is known as Daniel’s Prayer and it starts like this:
1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
Notice that something was revealed to Daniel because he studied the Bible. God purposely did not make everything crystal clear and spoke in parables himself because he wanted us to study to find the true meaning. The bible is like an onion that has all these layers to it and each time we peel one back through studying, something else is revealed. Some things have been there the whole time waiting for us to study and have them revealed. I think this is what happened with Daniel. He had the bible, well, a good portion of the Old Testament up through Ezekiel and Jeremiah who were writing at the same time that Daniel was. And he had an important message revealed to him about his people. To be specific, Daniel was looking at Jeremiah 25:8-12
Can you imagine how excited Daniel must have been? He’s an old man at this point. He’s been in Babylonian captivity since 606 BC and has recently seen the Medes and Persians take over. If he was looking at things correctly, there were only a couple more years to go…so he starts to pray.
When Daniel studied God’s word, he found himself in the center of God’s will and had God’s plans revealed to him, and he started to cry out to God. See what a great example Daniel can be to all of us. If you ever find yourself wondering what God’s will is for your life and you are unsure of where you are heading, start studying His word and he will show you His will.
Side bar: Ever find it interesting that in the center of the bible, in the center of God’s word is the longest chapter of the bible and the subject of it is God’s Word.
Psalm 119:9 9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
Then 119:89 89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Then 119:105 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
Lastly 119:160 160 All your words are true;
all your righteous laws are eternal.
From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 These are just a few of the examples that are in this great Psalm. So remember: go to the center of God’s word to learn about the center of God’s will.
Now back to Daniel’s Prayer starting in verse 4 of chapter 9:
Wait: another side bar from Matthew 6:
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, turn off your cell phones, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
I added a little nugget in there in case you found some of the wording strange.
O.K. Daniel 9:4
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 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.
7 "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. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
Notice that Daniel is not a finger pointer. He doesn’t go into his office and have blamestorming sessions as tends to happen in this day and age. He says ‘WE’. And Daniel, best as we can tell, was a pretty good guy. Even from when he was just a teenager and he asked to refuse the kings food because it went against God’s word (chapter 1). He stayed faithful to God his whole life and yet he still takes the blame for their punishment. When we pray for our own country do we ever say look what these people are doing to this country or do we take the blame like Daniel did and simply ask for God’s mercy. I’m no Daniel and have caught myself praying in the wrong way for this country, for this world. When was the last time that you prayed for God to come into the life of someone like Ahmadinejad or Putin or Quadafi or Abbas. Do we find any feelings of them getting what they deserve. Guess what folks, without the saving grace of knowing Christ as our personal savior, we would all get what we deserve. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
"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. 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. 13 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. 14 The LORD 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.
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. 16 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.
17 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 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."
Notice the passion in the past portion of the prayer with all the verbs used.
The end of Daniel’s prayer makes me think of 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
While Daniel is still in prayer confessing the sins of Israel, the angel Gabriel pays him a visit and says to Daniel:
"Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 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:
First off, how cool would it be for an angel from heaven to show up and let you know that you are highly esteemed…wait…maybe it’s just me that hasn’t. Go ahead, you can tell me. Gabriel follows with what is known as The Seventy “Sevens”:
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.
25 "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. 26 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. 27 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.
What in the world does that mean? Hey, as I mentioned, I think that this is the greatest prophecy in the bible and I feel that how one look at these four verses will affect the way that one sees all of the age of man playing itself out. I think it also affects how we live our lives. And we’re going to spend the next two weeks trying to figure these 4 verses out. That may sound like a lot of time, but there have been people that have spent a lifetime dealing with this passage. Two weeks will not do it justice, but we’ll give it our best shot.
Remember, God has a plan for the entire age of man, and the bible is the playbook.
Until next week, God Bless.
Mike
posted by blogawakening at 7:35 PM
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