I. The Context for the Communication of the Word of God, 9:20-23

A. One of the very real passions for the people of God in every period is the passion to hear the voice of God. We want God to speak to us. We desire desperately to hear His voice. One of the very visceral evidences of being a true child of God is this deep hunger and thirst to hear from heaven. One of the great devices of the devil, however; is to get us to detour from the main road that must be travelled if we are to hear God’s voice.

B. We have already seen in the previous verses of this chapter that God spoke to Daniel through His Word while Daniel was seeking God in serious study and in earnest prayer. In our context, we would say that Daniel was seeking God on His knees as he read the Bible. This is how God spoke to Daniel. This is how God speaks to us. This is how God speaks to His people in every age. The study of the Bible is hard work. It takes devotion and discipline. This is why the deliberate investment of our lives in Bible Study is so very important. It compels us into the discipline of the dedicated and daily study of the Word of God. And this is how we hear the Word of God.

C. This serious study of the Word of God must be connected with prayer in the context of the public worship of God. God chose the time of the evening sacrifice as Daniel was among the worshipping community to come to him and to communicate truth to him. Daniel had been seeking God through the Word of God. He stayed with it and God spoke. He always does when we get serious about the study of His Word. God “made Daniel understand” (22) and He gave Daniel “insight and understanding.” He gave him the knowledge of the Word of God and the way that knowledge was to be applied to his life. He showed him the interpretation of the truth and helped him to make application of that interpretation to his own life.

II. The Communication of the Truth of God, 9:24-27

A. Three basic views of these verses have been offered and defended over the years:

1. The years are referring to the time that begins with the Babylonian exile and ends with the cleansing of the temple after its profanation by Antiochus IV or the time from 586 B.C. to 164 B.C.

2. The years are to be understood symbolically of three time periods that cover the time from the exile to Anitochus and then the time from Antiochus to the crucifixion of Jesus and then from the time of the crucifixion to the end.

3. The years are to be understood literally and speak of the time from the order to rebuild the city to the crucifixion of Jesus and then from that period to the very end.

Let’s look now very carefully and closely to the text and seek to hear what it says.

B. Daniel 9:24 [+/-]Daniel 9:24 [24]"Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. (ESV)
is critical to our understanding. Three issues stare us in the face here:

1. Most interpreters see the seventy weeks as “weeks of years” or 7 X 70 or 490 years. These can be read sequentially or they can be read as 1 + 62+ 7. Read this way the first week is the time of the exile (Jeremiah 25 [+/-]Jeremiah 25 [25:1]The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), [2]which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: [3]"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. [4]You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, [5]saying, 'Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. [6]Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.' [7]Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. [8]"Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, [9]behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. [10]Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. [11]This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. [12]Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. [13]I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. [14]For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands." [15]Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. [16]They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them." [17]So I took the cup from the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: [18]Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day; [19]Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, all his people, [20]and all the mixed tribes among them; all the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod); [21]Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon; [22]all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea; [23]Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair; [24]all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; [25]all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; [26]all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Babylon shall drink. [27]"Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.' [28]"And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink! [29]For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts.' [30]"You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: "'The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice; he will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. [31]The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the LORD.' [32]"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, disaster is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth! [33]"And those pierced by the LORD on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground. [34]"Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel. [35]No refuge will remain for the shepherds, nor escape for the lords of the flock. [36]A voice--the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock! For the LORD is laying waste their pasture, [37]and the peaceful folds are devastated because of the fierce anger of the LORD. [38]Like a lion he has left his lair, for their land has become a waste because of the sword of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger."
and 29 and Daniel 9:2 [+/-]Daniel 9:2 [2]in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. (ESV)
); the 62 weeks are from the order to rebuild to the death of Jesus and the final seven years are the seven years of the Great Tribulation.

2. These seventy weeks are “decreed” and they have to do with the Jewish People and the city of Jerusalem. So whatever this is, its focus is on the Jews and city of Jerusalem. Thus, this prophetic word is very particular in its application. This is not a word that is connected to the Gentiles.

3. The purpose of the seventy weeks is six fold:

a. To finish the transgression which means to put an end to the power of sin over the lives of people; to deal with the abomination that is the avenue of destruction in the lives of people;

b. To put an end to sin which means to overcome the penalty of sin in the lives of people so that eternal death can be transformed into eternal life;

c. To atone for iniquity which means to cover the sin of sinners so that the sinner can be forgiven and set free from the power and the penalty of sin, even at last being set free from the presence of sin;

d. To bring in everlasting righteousness which means the establishment of an Edenic Kingdom in which all that is pure and true is practices perpetually forever;

e. To seal both the vision and the prophet means the complete fulfillment of the fullness of the vision of Daniel and other visions of the end, e.g.; the Book of Revelation

f. To anoint a most holy place which means the restoration of the Temple in the Holy City which will be the focal point for the worship of the people of God.

The first three took place when Jesus went to Calvary; the second three will happen only when Jesus returns to establish His eternal Kingdom upon the earth. Now it is right here that Covenantal theologians and Dispensationalists would depart. The former affirm a rapture of the church some time before the second coming while the latter affirm only the second coming where all that is inferred in the rapture happens concomitantly with the second coming.

C. Daniel 9:25 [+/-]Daniel 9:25 [25]Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. (ESV)
gives us our starting point for dating these events. The starting point is the “going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one.” It seems that the most appropriate scenario here would be the captivity period that began in 587 B.C. and ended when Cyrus of Persia who is called “the anointed one” (Isa. 45:1 [+/-]Isaiah 45:1 [45:1]Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
) issues in 538 B.C. the edict that the people can return to their homeland. That is an exact period of 49 years.

D. The next period is the sixty two week period in which the city will be rebuilt and the time will be troubled and an anointed one will be cut off. It seems that this period begins with the command of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1 [+/-]Nehemiah 2:1 [2:1]In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. (ESV)
) and ends precisely in A.D. 33 the year of the crucifixion of Jesus. This way of reckoning requires the use of the measures of the Jewish calendar or 360 days and the subtraction of “one” due to the transition from B.C. to A.D. Using the Roman calendar yields a date in the mid forties which is the position taken by John Macarthur who sees this time frame referring not just to the death and resurrection of Jesus but to the establishment of the age of the church as well.

E. The anointed one who is to be cut off seems to be a reference to Jesus. The prince who is to come seems to be a reference to the Antichrist whose minions are already present in the late first century (1 John). The time of the end is described in verse 26 and the work of the Antichrist in verse 27 with his final destruction decreed. What is found here finds its fulfillment finally in Revelation 19:11-21 [+/-]Revelation 19:11-21 [11]Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. [12]His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. [13]He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. [14]And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. [15]From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. [16]On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. [17]Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God, [18]to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great." [19]And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. [20]And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. [21]And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. (ESV)
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Tags: Daniel, Study

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