Reflections on Daniel 9

Daniel 09 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Daniel wrote: Some years later, Darius the Mede, who was the son of Xerxes, had become king of Babylonia. And during his first year as king, I found out from studying the writings of the prophets that the LORD had said to Jeremiah, "Jerusalem will lie in ruins for seventy years."
   
2. (SEE 9:1)
   
3. Then, to show my sorrow, I went without eating and dressed in sackcloth and sat in ashes. I confessed my sins and earnestly prayed to the LORD my God: Our Lord, you are a great and fearsome God, and you faithfully keep your agreement with those who love and obey you.
   
4. (SEE 9:3)
   
5. But we have sinned terribly by rebelling against you and rejecting your laws and teachings.
   
6. We have ignored the message your servants the prophets spoke to our kings, our leaders, our ancestors, and everyone else.
   
7. Everything you do is right, our Lord. But still we suffer public disgrace because we have been unfaithful and have sinned against you. This includes all of us, both far and near--the people of Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel, as well as those you dragged away to foreign lands,
   
8. and even our kings, our officials, and our ancestors.
   
9. LORD God, you are merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against you
   
10. and rejected your teachings that came to us from your servants the prophets.
    
11. Everyone in Israel has stubbornly refused to obey your laws, and so those curses written by your servant Moses have fallen upon us.
    
12. You warned us and our leaders that Jerusalem would suffer the worst disaster in human history, and you did exactly as you had threatened.
    
13. We have not escaped any of the terrible curses written by Moses, and yet we have refused to beg you for mercy and to remind ourselves of how faithful you have always been.
    
14. And when you finally punished us with this horrible disaster, that was also the right thing to do, because we deserved it so much.
    
15. Our Lord God, with your own mighty arm you rescued us from Egypt and made yourself famous to this very day, but we have sinned terribly.
    
16. In the past, you treated us with such kindness, that we now beg you to stop being so terribly angry with Jerusalem. After all, it is your chosen city built on your holy mountain, even though it has suffered public disgrace because of our sins and those of our ancestors.
    
17. I am your servant, Lord God, and I beg you to answer my prayers and bring honor to yourself by having pity on your temple that lies in ruins.
    
18. Please show mercy to your chosen city, not because we deserve it, but because of your great kindness.
    
19. Forgive us! Hurry and do something, not only for your city and your chosen people, but to bring honor to yourself.
    
20. I was still confessing my sins and those of all Israel to the LORD my God, and I was praying for the good of his holy mountain,
    
21. when Gabriel suddenly came flying in at the time of the evening sacrifice. This was the same Gabriel I had seen in my vision,
    
22. and he explained: Daniel, I am here to help you understand the vision.
    
23. God thinks highly of you, and at the very moment you started praying, I was sent to give you the answer.
    
24. God has decided that for seventy weeks, your people and your holy city must suffer as the price of their sins. Then evil will disappear, and justice will rule forever; the visions and words of the prophets will come true, and a most holy place will be dedicated.
    
25. You need to realize that from the command to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of the Chosen Leader, it will be seven weeks and another sixty-two weeks. Streets will be built in Jerusalem, and a trench will be dug around the city for protection, but these will be difficult times.
    
26. At the end of the sixty-two weeks, the Chosen Leader will be killed and left with nothing. A foreign ruler and his army will sweep down like a mighty flood, leaving both the city and the temple in ruins, and war and destruction will continue until the end, just as God has decided.
    
27. For one week this foreigner will make a firm agreement with many people, and halfway through this week, he will end all sacrifices and offerings. Then the "Horrible Thing" that causes destruction will be put there. And it will stay there until the time God has decided to destroy this one who destroys.
    
    

    ---

    
    Daniel was inspired, following the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, to search scriptures and gain understanding of what was taking place. Through his search, he came to understand that "the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70." (9:2) Therefore, he came to realize that the end of Judah's captivity was near. Daniel also realized that this required spiritual preparation. Whether or not his people fully realized, Daniel, knew their captivity was a result of God's discipline on the sinful nation. He further knew that for the nation to be restored to blessing they would have to repent, seek God's forgiveness and return to Him. So this is what Daniel did. "So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." (9:3)
    
    The following verses - verses 4-19 - are Daniel's prayer of confession for his sins and those of the nation of Judah and asking God's forgiveness. While he was still praying and growing weary, the angel Gabriel came to him. Gabriel's purpose for coming to Daniel was to give him understanding. What he revealed to Daniel was a prophetic message that has had a wide variety of interpretations. I am partial to an interpretation of this message that views it as addressing the history of Israel rather than world or church history. This, after all, was the context in which it was given. First, Gabriel explained that "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city--to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to wipe away injustice, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place." (9:24) Again, the time period represented by the "Seventy weeks" has varied understanding. I will agree with those who consider "weeks" to represent the number 7, for the number of days in a week. Thus we have 70 times seven, or 490 years. A reference, as I understand it, to the coming Messiah and His provision for the forgiveness of sin. Though an end to sin will not come to pass until Christ's second advent, the finishing of sin was made possible by Christ's death on the cross.
    
    Then Gabriel said, "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times." (9:25)  The clock was to start on this 490 years with the "issuing of the decree." This was likely the decree of Artaxerxes, in 444 b.c., to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem. From this point to the coming of Christ, Gabriel said, would be "seven weeks and 62 weeks." In other words, 49 years (7 times 7 or seven weeks), which was probably the period required to rebuild the city, and then 434 years (62 times 7 or 62 weeks), the remaining period up to the coming of Christ.
    
    After the 62 weeks (434 years), Gabriel said, "the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing." This can be understood as an anticipation of Israel's rejection of Christ and His offering of Himself as the atonement for her sins with His crucifixion. Following Israel's rejection of the Messiah, the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary would again be destroyed, this time by "the people of the coming prince." This coming prince was the final ruler of the Roman Empire, or the little horn of Daniel's vision in 7:8. Christ also spoke of this destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. From there, Gabriel's prophecy jumps to the far future referring to events that will preceed Christ's second advent. This portion is even more difficult to understand. What we can be certain of, though, is that Israel will have more suffering to endure right up to Christ's return at which time she will return to the Lord and be returned to His full blessing.