After a one-month break, I am returning to my series on Daniel in Babylon. If you recall, the book of Daniel is divided into two halves. Chapters one through six tell stories of Daniel and his Hebrew friends while in captivity in Babylon. Chapters seven through twelve unfold a series of visions that cover the future of great Middle Eastern empires, but also reach to the end of time in prophesying parallel kingdoms that are darker and more evil to the ones he knew. Daniel is the Old Testament type of the Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse, at the end of the New Testament. I would encourage you to do a parallel study of both Daniel and Revelation to see what I’m talking about.

Chapters seven and eight recount two fearful visions. Chapter seven spoke of four great beasts – representing the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Chapter eight focused on two beasts the two-horned Ram and a one-horned Goat, representing the collision between Persia and Greece, where Alexander the Great led a unified Greek army to conquer the Persian Empire and beyond. The lesson in these chapters is that God is sovereign over the destinies of these and all nations, including the United States. More poignantly, God is also sovereign over your life, and wants to give you LIFE, AND LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY!

Chapter 9 now takes a different turn. Instead of recounting a vision, Daniel tells of an intercessory prayer he made on behalf of his people, the nation of Israel, and then God’s astounding response, delivered by the herald angel Gabriel, God’s chief messenger, Now Let’s read the first three verses of chapter 9.

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (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. ³ So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel gives us the date of his experience: the first year of Darius the Mede, who reigned as King of Babylon under the Persian Emperor, Cyrus the Great. This was 538 BC, the year Babylon fell. Whereas the visions in chapters seven and eight occurred decades earlier while Belshazzar still ruled in Babylon, Persia was now in command of the Middle East. So the timing of this event was significant, because there was a change in regimes; and Daniel earnestly prayed for the return of his people to their homeland.

Daniel learned from the writings of Jeremiah the prophet that Jerusalem’s desolation would last seventy years. Daniel had been in captivity in Babylon since about 606 BC, when King Nebuchadnezzar first captured Jerusalem, or roughly 68 years. He sensed this was the time to earnestly seek God for the return of the people to their ancient homeland and the restoration of Jerusalem, their holy city.

So Daniel “turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” Daniel took on the role of Israel’s intercessor, recognizing that only God could end the desolation of Jerusalem and Israel’s exile in Babylon. He turned to the Lord; literally, he “set his face to the Lord God.” Daniel shut out all distraction and focused all his attention on seeking God, so that God would know that this prayer was far above the routine, faithful supplications that Daniel had made to God over his lifetime.

Turning to God in every situation of consequence is always the best, first response. God already knows every possible contingency you face in every situation; but He knows what must take place; and your action of turning to Him immediately releases the grace that you need to face that situation. And nothing will cause you harm, unless that harm is intended to bring about an even greater good.

Aren’t you glad Jesus willingly suffered rejection, shame, torture and death for us? Yet it was “for the joy before Him [that] He endured the cross.” You, too, will have a measure of suffering appointed for you in the future. When it comes, don’t curse the pain, but bless God who graces you to suffer for the sake of righteousness, “for [yours] is the kingdom of heaven.”

Then Daniel pleaded with God in prayer and petition. Prayer to God should be a vital and routine part of godly living. The Apostle Paul us instructs to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:14-16). We should pray about everything where God’s grace and providential care are desired – which is just about everything. We should also be quick to offer praise and thanksgiving for the blessings He bestows, to give credit to God for all the good things that surround us in this world. And we should be quick to confess sinful attitudes, words and actions when we recognize them in ourselves. Doing so protects from committing greater transgressions that can really cause us, and others, harm.

For Daniel, prayer meant extolling God’s greatness and righteousness in contrast with Israel’s wickedness, faithlessness and shameful apostasy. To make his appeal to God even more poignant, Daniel fasted in sackcloth and ashes. Daniel probably fasted both food and water, making his suffering acute.

If you’ve never fasted for a whole day, I recommend it sometime as a spiritual exercise. Fasting doesn’t earn you merit points with God, but by willingly depriving your body of food and enduring its discomfort, you are declaring your devotion to God exceeds your commitment to bodily comfort and pleasure. In the midst of extreme physical and personal anguish Job declared to his friends, “I have not departed from the command of His lips. I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

Sackcloth and ashes only heightened the physical discomfort of Daniel’s intercession and self-abasement before God. This was the time-honored way for humiliating oneself as an act of contrition. Sackcloth is unnecessary today in beseeching God when we are in a crisis. Hebrews 4:15-16 assures us, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has suffered in all ways as we have, yet without sin. Let us therefore go confidently before the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.” There’s a way when you pray. So when you’re in a crisis, send the prayer that rises!

Daniel set the example on how to intercede for a sinful nation. Notice the contrast he makes between God’s holiness and justice, and Israel’s sinfulness and rebellion: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 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 ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

Israel’s great sins were rooted in their disobedience to God’s revealed commands and laws, and compounded by their refusal to heed the admonition of prophets who sought to turn the nation back to God. God’s laws accomplish two great things: they protect us from harm, and they provide for our good. People who try to keep the Ten Commandments are protected from the terrible consequences of accumulated sins, which is iniquity, that pursue a man’s descendants even to the third and fourth generation.

Every country in the world is affected by inter-generational sin; and if you look back into your family tree, you will probably find sinful tendencies that led to your fall and conviction to prison. The good news is that now, by turning to the Lord, God will help you start a new pattern of obedience that will carry through your descendants to the end of time. For example, the Fifth Commandment to honor our father and mother comes with a promise that it will be well with us and we will live long on the earth. Faithful, God-fearing families do live better and longer than people who act wickedly. When you adhere to God’s moral law, not only are you protected from committing acts that would bring you shame and rejection by society, you garner for yourself a good name that opens doors of favor and opportunity. And “favor” God says, “is better than silver or gold.” So obeying God’s laws helps provide you a better future.

Today we live in a society more ignorant of God’s ways than perhaps any generation before it. We may appear outwardly affluent and successful as a country, but are in grave danger of becoming inwardly bankrupt – a nation that is incapable of repenting toward God. That’s why it is our duty as Christians to appeal to God daily on behalf of our country and fellow citizens. We may not be able to fully stop the tide of sin in our land, but we can, as Jesus said, be “the salt of the earth” that retards moral rot and social decay, and “the light of the world” that shows the way home to our gracious Heavenly Father. Continuing from verse 7:

 “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants 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 We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, 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.”

Daniel repeated that Israel and its leaders were covered with shame because of their unfaithfulness to God; they had betrayed the covenant which God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the laws instituted under Moses. All Israel, he said “has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.”

But Daniel also reminded God that He is merciful and forgiving, which is the covenant promise God made to Moses, when He passed all His glory before him. God declared to Moses on Mount Sinai nearly a thousand years before:

“The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Then Daniel affirmed God’s justice in permitting the curses and judgments in the Law of Moses to befall Israel, because of Israel’s sins. It wasn’t failure to carry out ceremonial ordinances that led to Israel’s downfall, but defiant worship of false gods and idolatry throughout the land; murder of God’s prophets and other saints; religious prostitution and adultery; oppression and defrauding of the poor; and blatant miscarriages of justice. In short, Israel flaunted the Ten Commandments before God’s face, all the while using His Name publicly, and blaspheming it thereby. Daniel continued:

“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 on 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 on 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 on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

Daniel affirmed that “God is righteous in everything He does; yet we have not obeyed Him.” Don’t fall into the trap of blaming God when adversity strikes. God never acts unjustly. You may not understand why God allows bad things to happen to you. It could be a payback for a hurtful act or subtle theft that you have committed. But if so, the Holy Spirit will bring that to mind when you ask Him. God doesn’t willingly afflict His children, the Bible says. Proverbs 6:23 tells us that “The commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life.”

God disciplines you because He loves you. He loves you just the way you are; but He loves you too much to let you stay that way. He intends for us to grow up and take on a more Christlike character – a character of love, faith, humility, purity, honesty and good works. [And if you’re interested in growing in Christlikeness I can give you verses for each of the six virtues I just cited. Memorizing scripture, I have found, is the most effective way of hiding God’s word in my heart, so that I might not sin against Him.]

Moving on to verse 15, Daniel changed from confessing Israel’s sins to petitioning God for the restoration of Jerusalem, and in effect the nation of Judah.

¹⁵ “Now, 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 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 ancestors 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, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. ¹⁸ Give ear, our 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 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

Daniel appealed to God’s mercy on the basis of His covenant promises to the people of Israel. God heard Daniel’s prayer and sent a most astonishing reply, one that went way beyond anything Daniel could ever have imagined. Resuming in verse 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— ²¹ 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.

God’s herald angel, Gabriel, was introduced to us in chapter 8 where he was instructed by a mysterious man, the Messiah I believe, to explain the vision of the Ram and the Goat. Gabriel is one of only two angels named in the Bible and the book of Daniel: Gabriel and Michael the archangel.

Continuing from verse 22: “He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. ²³ As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:

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.

²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out 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 put to death 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 at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

First, Gabriel told Daniel that he was sent from heaven with his reply as soon as Daniel began to pray. God already had an answer prepared for Daniel before he began to pray. His “word went out”, and Gabriel knew exactly what he was supposed to tell Daniel. God waited patiently for exactly the right person at the right time to pray before God released one of the most important prophecies in all of history.

God already knows what we need before we ask Him, Jesus said; and God knows what He wants to do when we pray. But God waits for us to pray before He sets his answer in motion, so that we may know that we are participants in His wise providence. Prayer sets into motion divine actions that God prepared long before. So you and I should persist in prayer, knowing that God will answer our prayers as He knows best at exactly the right time. Sooner or later, we’re going to pray something that releases a divine decree and angelic support. But just as Daniel had to wait over twenty after his previous visions before God gave him this extraordinary prophecy, so we may too have to wait – sometimes for many years – before God answers our greatest prayers.

Gabriel told Daniel to “consider the word and understand the vision.” This phrasing suggests that Gabriel was both speaking a prophecy to Daniel and causing him to feel and comprehend what he was saying as if he were living through it. Most of Daniel’s visions, I believe, were like watching an IMAX movie in 3D. This vision may have been more an epiphany in three dimensions, a fully completed thought, where Daniel felt and understood but didn’t physically see what was told him. The way he recounted the “vision” seems to indicate that. I have had one such experience like that: I didn’t so much see as I knew what God was saying.

Gabriel told Daniel that seventy ‘sevens’ or weeks were “decreed for your people and your holy city.” It is obvious that Gabriel didn’t mean seven-day weeks. He meant seventy ‘sevens’ of years or 490 years. The fulfilment of these 70 ‘sevens’, Gabriel said, would “finish transgression… put an end to sin… atone for wickedness… bring in everlasting righteousness… seal up vision and prophecy and… anoint the Most Holy Place.”

The number 7 in the Bible is the number of perfection. That’s why God’s creative work in Genesis took place over seven “days”, where God “rested” on the seventh day in full control of the universe from his throne in Heaven. The 70 sevens are also fitting, because Israel was sent to exile for 70 years for failing to keep the Sabbath years for 490 years. Therefore, what Israel had failed to do, the Anointed One – Jesus the Messiah – would accomplish after 490 more years.

Daniel pleaded with God to show mercy to Jerusalem and restore her as before. Instead, God gave Daniel His vision for the ages, till the end of time that promised Jerusalem’s restoration but immeasurably more. God replied that after the 70 weeks, He would put an end to sin, atone for evil and bring in everlasting righteousness. Thus, God would “seal up” or complete all divine revelation and “anoint the Most Holy Place.” He would establish perfect, holy, divine worship forevermore. God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer was, in effect, to declare the ultimate goal of Providence and what the end-state of all prophecy and divine action on earth would be. He went way, way beyond what Daniel was hoping for by introducing another Great Intercessor, the Anointed One or Messiah, who would accomplish God’s vision for the ages.

Gabriel explained that although 70 ‘sevens’ must be accomplished to complete all revelation, “From the time the word goes out 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.”

What did Gabriel mean? First, there would be a specific start point in history for this prophetic clock to start – a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Second, from the time of this decree till the Anointed One or Messiah, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ and 62 ‘sevens’.

So when did this “word… to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” occur? There are two dates proposed by scholars worth considering and each has its merits. The first proposed date is 457 BC, when King Xerxes sent Ezra the priest to Jerusalem. Ezra 9:9 stated that through the kings of Persia, “God … has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.” Even though Ezra did not actually rebuild the walls till Nehemiah arrived thirteen years later, it is plausible to understand 457 BC as the start for the decree predicted in Daniel 9:25. If you add 69 sevens or 483 years from 457 BC, you arrive at 27 AD, right before Jesus began His ministry. And as for Messiah being cut off in the middle of the “week”, Jesus, they say, was crucified in 30 AD, which would fit the timing of the prophecy.

The other proposed date, which I prefer, is derived from Nehemiah 2:1-8. In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, the king authorized his cup-bearer Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem. According to biblical researcher Chuck Missler, “[Daniel 9] includes a mathematical prophecy… The Jewish (and Babylonian) calendars used a 360-day year; 69 weeks of 360-day years totals 173,880 days. In effect, Gabriel told Daniel that the interval between the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the presentation of the Messiah as King would be 173,880 days. The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 B.C. (The emphasis in the verse on “the street” and “the wall” was to avoid confusion with other earlier mandates confined to rebuilding the Temple.)

“During the ministry of Jesus Christ there were several occasions in which the people attempted to promote Him as king, but He carefully avoided it: “Mine hour is not yet come”. Then, one day, He meticulously arranges it. On this particular day he rode into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey, deliberately fulfilling a prophecy by Zechariah that the Messiah would present Himself as king in just that way:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Zechariah 9:9. This is the only occasion that Jesus presented Himself as King. It occurred on April 6, 32 A.D.

“When we examine the period between March 14, 445 B.C. and April 6, 32 A.D., and correct for leap years, we discover that it is 173,880 days exactly, to the very day!”

I would also point out that this chronology better fits the start of Jesus’ ministry, since we know John the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius, or 28 AD, and Jesus began His ministry after John. So if he started in 29 AD, Jesus’ three years of ministry would end in 32 AD, as this chronology indicates. There is also no reason to believe that the Emperor Tiberius was the ruler who made a seven-year covenant with the Jewish people, or broke that covenant. And there is definitely no evidence that the temple in Jerusalem was defiled by the abomination of desolation after Jesus’ crucifixion.

Daniel’s prophecy continues: “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death 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 at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

After 483 years, or 69 sevens, Messiah would be put to death, and the people of a coming ruler will destroy the city and sanctuary. Less than forty years after Jesus’ death, the Roman legions under General Titus breached Jerusalem’s walls destroying the city and levelling the temple to the ground. The prophecy says that a ruler of this people will make a seven-year covenant with many in Israel, which is the last of the 70 sevens, but in the middle of that period or 3½ years, he will abolish sacrifice and offering. Many biblical teachers identify this as the Antichrist or Beast of Revelation, connected to Rome or Europe.

At the end of this seven-year period Jesus returns to bring an end to Antichrist’s kingdom and put an end to all earthly governments but His own. The renowned Left Behind fictional series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins focuses on this seven-year tribulation.

Jesus warned about the abomination that causes desolation in the holy place as a sure sign of the end and of His coming. If that prophecy is to have a literal fulfillment in this day and age, however, a third temple will have to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, right where the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are situated. That is clearly impossible today; but who knows what will happen in the future?

Daniel 9 contains one of the most important and startlingly precise prophecies about the coming and death of Jesus Christ in scripture. It also points prophetically to His ultimate return to end sin and bring in everlasting righteousness. Are you ready for His Coming? Have you committed yourself completely to Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? Are you willing, like Daniel, to be an intercessor, someone who stands in the gap for others in prayer and also in deeds of charity and mercy?

If you have any doubts about where you stand with God or in your relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to pray with you after this service.

Let us pray.