Daniel 9 70 Weeks
Daniel is pleading over Israel’s sins and their future. He links Jeremiah’s words to the exiles to his visions. Gabriel comes with a 70 weeks explanation.
Here we are at another prophecy given to Daniel. One that I am in NO WAY able to give understanding to. I KNOW that it is VERY important in what God is doing even now, but I’m going to have to let Him show it to me with 20/20 hindsight.
One thing I DO know is that, if ANYONE tells you they can predict when Jesus will return, they are LYING. Not even Jesus knows the day or hour of His return. What we can see are the signs, but even those will only be understood with hindsight. People have been predicting the coming of Jesus from days after He left. Probably from the day of Pentecost onward those who love Him have been expecting His immediate return. Jesus IS returning, but it will happen in GOD’S time.
With my inadequacies in mind regarding prophecy, let’s rejoin Daniel’s story. I will let the Spirit lead our walk in simply telling his story instead of interpreting it. And if He happens to throw some insight our way, I’ll take it.
♥ ♦ ♥
Daniel is used to praying. He prays three times a day, every day. He also searches out understanding in the torah and words of the prophets. Jeremiah’s letters to the exiles draws him to them like a moth to a flame. He earnestly wants to understand every word the Lord has sent to the people through Jeremiah’s hand. It seems so straight forward, yet he knows that there is meaning hidden in it for those who are willing to search.
Today, Daniel is feeling the weight of Israel’s sin and he feels compelled to pray for the people. He believes that Jeremiah’s words of restoration are near and the people NEED to truly repent before they can come about. Today, Daniel takes up the role of intercessor. He prays in the people’s place, with an eye to the future.
Daniel KNOWS that the peoples’ sins are what resulted in them being in exile. He also knows that the only way the Lord will bring them out of exile is if they repent. NOT that their repenting will make ANYTHING right, but that it will prepare a path for God’s mercy to be poured out. So, Daniel pours his heart out to God.
“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and rules. 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. To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which You have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against You. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in His laws, which He set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, refusing to obey Your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against Him. He has confirmed his words, which He spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that He has done, and we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for Yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
“O Lord, according to all Your righteous acts, let Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for Your own sake, O Lord, make Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by Your name. For we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name” (Daniel 9:4-19).
Daniel is pouring his heart out to His God. The God who hears, when he feels a presence enter the room with him. Daniel turns toward the presence and sees Gabriel, the same angel that had appeared in his last vision. It strikes him as appropriate in timing, as this is the hour that the evening sacrifice would be offered in Jerusalem, if it were not a desolation.
Gabriel looks at Daniel with obvious love in his eyes. Gabriel knows that Daniel touches the heart of God. That he is a man dedicated to following the Lord’s commands, no matter what the cost. Gabriel is honored to be the one bringing the words of the Lord to Daniel.
“O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision” (Daniel 9:22-23).
Daniel readies himself for whatever the Lord has for him. Gabriel smiles at Daniel’s attitude but that smile fades before he begins relating God’s words. They are weighty words, that are to be taken into Daniel’s heart. He knows that Daniel won’t fully understand them, but he will pass them on for others to ponder them and gain, at least a little, insight into God’s plan.
“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. 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. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator” (Daniel 9:24-27).
After delivering this message to Daniel, Gabriel leaves just as quickly as he came. Daniel would love to ask him questions regarding the Lord’s words, but Gabriel is already gone. Daniel contemplates the words he has heard. One thing he feels strongly about is that the words the Lord has been sharing with him, through visions and visitations, are somehow connected. He doesn’t know exactly how, but he trusts that the Lord does. It is, after all, HIS words and HIS plans. He feels honored to be allowed even this much insight into what the Lord has in store for His people.
“I don’t have to fully understand it to trust the One who speaks to me. O Lord, I trust You and I leave the timing of all You have shown me in Your hands. It is enough for me to know that You have not forgotten Your people.”
With this resolved in his heart, Daniel readies for bed. Tomorrow is another day to watch and see what the Lord has planned for His people.
(to be continued)
I know that I would have been peppering Gabriel with questions. “What do you mean by…?” “What about the people today?” “How will I know when these ‘weeks’ take place?” “Are You speaking of man’s weeks?” And those are just the ones that jump into my mind right now. I wonder if Daniel had these same questions and wanted to ask them, or if he simply trusted that, what he needed to know, God would give him.
Maybe I don’t need to know all the answers either. My understanding won’t alter God’s plans. He is in control, NO ONE ELSE. Not even Satan can derail God’s plans.
Father God, I trust YOU with my WHOLE HEART. I don’t understand all that You showed Daniel and had him record for me to see. I know that Your plans will unfold with or without my understanding. And the best part is that I KNOW YOU WIN. And as Your child, that means that I am SAFE for eternity! I’ll let You show me what I missed when it is all over. I can wait on understanding. But I will NOT wait on believing! I KNOW Jesus is coming back again. I KNOW that things are going to be really bad before that day. And I KNOW that, no matter what comes, I am SAFE in Your arms. That is enough for me; at least for today.
