SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/17/2015 9:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: How Daniel Nine Goes along with Rev. 6
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
9:24-27
Message of the
verses: I have often mentioned that
the prophecy that is found in the ninth chapter of Daniel is probably the most
amazing prophecy found in all of God’s Word.
It is worth mentioning that the prophecy that Daniel received began with
a rather lengthy prayer of confession and intercession for the nation of
Israel. Israel had been taken captive by
the Babylonians and in a series of three different years, 605, 597, and 586
Jewish people had been taken to Babylon.
Daniel was taken in 605 and Ezekiel was taken in 597. God would send these men ahead along with
others to preserve the line of the Messiah, a line that had to run through
David. Daniel was a very faithful man of
God as no sin of his is ever mentioned in the Word of God. God called him to work in the government of
Babylon and it was a series of miracles that this happened as we read when we
study the book of Daniel. My entire
study on the book of Daniel is on my blog which I did in 2013, but what I want
to do in this blog post is to try and explain what the prophecy in Daniel nine
has to do with the tribulation period that we are beginning to study in the
book of Revelation. We have now studied
five chapters in the book of Revelation and beginning in the sixth chapter and
going through the 19th chapter we will see God’s judgment on sinful
mankind which will take place in a seven year period, and that seven year
period is seen in this wonderful prophecy found in Daniel chapter nine. I first want to copy and paste my study on
the verses at the end of Daniel nine and then perhaps make some ending
comments, but I want you to know that it is vital to understand this passage
from Daniel to help us understand what is going on beginning in Revelation
chapter six.
“My Worship Time Focus:
Instruction: Discovering God’s Timetable
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel 9:20-24
Message of the
verses: We will be just looking at
verses 20-23 and then also verse 24 which speaks of what is called the “Seventy
Weeks.”
“20 Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing
my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before
the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, 21 while I was still
speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening
offering. 22 He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, "O
Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. 23 "At the beginning of your
supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed;
so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. 24 "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy
place.”
We see actually that Daniel was not really finished with
his prayer to the Lord, a prayer that consisted of his confession his sins and
also the sin of the people of Israel as we have been looking at in our previous
SD’s. Daniel is interrupted by an angel,
an angel he had seen in his last vision described in chapter eight, and his
name was Gabriel which means “man of God,” or “warrior of God.” Gabriel was sent to Daniel to answer his
prayer, and he was sent when Daniel began to pray. I suppose that we can conclude from this that
angels can move very fast. Gabriel tells Daniel that he is
highly esteemed, and this is a wonderful complement given to Daniel.
Next we see that Gabriel came at the time of the evening
sacrifice, a time when Daniel would usually be praying to the Lord, as he
prayed three times a day. The evening
sacrifice that is given at this time is a lamb as seen in Exodus 29:38-41, “38 "Now
this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day,
continuously. 39 "The one lamb you
shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; 40 and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of
fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a
hin of wine for a drink offering with one lamb. 41 "The other lamb you shall offer at
twilight, and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink
offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the
LORD.” In the NT we find that there are
different sacrifices for us to offer to the Lord, and one of them is found in
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual service of worship.” Let us
look at Psalm 141:1-2 “O LORD, I call upon You; hasten to me! Give ear to my
voice when I call to You! 2 May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The
lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.” We see here that David must have also prayed
at the evening sacrifice too.
The Seventy Weeks:
(Daniel 9:24): “24 "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an
end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy
place.”
I have mentioned this before about these seventy weeks,
and so I want, at this time to quote Dr. Wiersbe, “The word ‘weeks’ means ‘sevens,’ so Gabriel was
speaking about seventy periods of 7 years, or 490 years. Keep in mind that these years relate specifically to Daniel’s people,
the Jews, and their holy city, Jerusalem. In his prayer, Daniel’s great concern was
that his people be forgiven their sins against the Lord, the city be rebuilt,
and the temple be restored (vs. 16); and these are the matters that Gabriel
will discuss. To apply this important prophecy to any other
people or place is to rob it of its intended meaning.”
There are six specific things that Gabriel explained to
Daniel that would happen during these 490 years, six specific purposes for the Jewish people. Dr. Wiersbe explains that the first three
have to do with sin and the last three have to do with righteousness. Dr. Wiersbe explains “The Lord would ‘finish
the transgression,’ that is, the transgression of the Jewish people, and ‘make
an end of’ Israel’s national sins. This
was one of the main burdens of Daniel’s prayer.
Israel was a scattered suffering nation because she was a sinful
nation. How would the Lord accomplish this? By making ‘reconciliation for iniquity,’ that
is, by offering a sacrifice that would atone for their sin. Here we come to the cross of Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah.” It was Jesus who paid the price of sin as He
suffered on the cross in order to bring salvation to those who will receive
Him, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor
of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John
1:12-13).”
The last three specific things that Gabriel speaks to
Daniel of, as we said, have to do with righteousness, and they will happen
during the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ upon planet earth.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section with
these words, “These six purposes declare the answer to Daniel’s prayer! Ultimately, Israel’s sins will be forgiven
(Zech. 12:10-13:1), the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and the temple and
its ministry will be restored, all because of the atoning death of Jesus Christ
on the cross. All of these wonderful
accomplishment will be fulfilled during the 490 years that Gabriel goes on to
explain. He divides the seven sevens—490 years—into three
significant periods: 49 years, 434 years
and 7 years.” At the end of this
statement Dr. Wiersbe gives us an endnote: “The Jewish calendar is based on a series of
sevens. The seventh day is the Sabbath
day and the seventh year is a sabbatical year (Ex. 23:11-13). The fiftieth year (7x7+1) is the Year of
Jubilee (Lev. 25). The Feast of
Pentecost is seven weeks after Firstfruits (Lev. 23:15-22), and during the
seventh month of the year, the Jews observed the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of
Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.””
Now
we will go to the next SD on verses 25-27: “Message
of the verses: In Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary he has broken up the 490 years into three different sub-points and
we will try to look at each one of these in today’s SD.
Period # 1—49 years
(Daniel 9:25): “25 "So you are to know and discern that
from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince
there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with
plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
I can remember the first time that I heard the
explanation of this verse while visiting a friend in Florida in January of
1974. I was listening to a series of
taped messages by a man named Hal Lindsey who had recently written a book named
“The Late Great Planet Earth” which was a book about prophecies from the Word
of God. As I look back on that time I
remember that this was the time that the Lord Jesus Christ saved me from my
sins and He used the tapes on prophecy to draw me to Himself as each message had
the clear gospel presentation at the end of it.
Daniel
9:25 gives us the starting point of when this 490 years will begin, and
since there were three different times in which the Jews were told that they
could leave Babylon there has been much disagreement as to when this time
period would begin. The prophecy is
about the city and the temple, for that is what Daniel was praying about, along
with, of course, having the Jewish people return to the city of Jerusalem. Sir Robert Anderson has written a book in
which he entitled “The Coming Prince” and this book is about the 490 year
prophecy from Daniel nine. He believes
along with many people that I have respect for believe that the decree that is
spoken of in Daniel 9:25 is
given in the second chapter of the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a cup bearer to the king of
Persia and when you have that job you better not look sad in his presence or
you could lose your head. Nehemiah had
spent much time in prayer over what was going on in Jerusalem for there had
been Jewish people already living there for almost 100 years and the city was
still not complete. Nehemiah’s prayers
were answered in chapter two, which was 445 BC and we read about it in Nehemiah
chapter two: “1 And it came about in the
month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before
him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2
So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not sick?
This is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I
said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the
place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by
fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has
found favor before you, send
me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it."
6 Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, "How long will
your journey be, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send
me, and I gave him a definite time. 7 And I said to the king, "If it
please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces
beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah,
8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me
timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for
the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go." And the king granted them to me
because the good hand of my God was on me.” With this statement the 490 year prophecy
began.
When you read through the book of Nehemiah you see that
there was much trouble in rebuilding the city walls as the people who were
working on the walls had a sword in one hand and things to rebuild the wall in
the other hand, and this is just as Gabriel said would happen, that it would be
done with trouble.
Period # 2—483
Years (Daniel 9:26): “26 "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and
have nothing, and the
people of the prince who
is to come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood;
even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
The math is like this 49 + 434 = 483, so there are 483
years from the time that the decree was given in Nehemiah chapter two until the
cutting off of the Messiah. Four hundred
and eighty-three years from 445 BC puts you into 29/30 AD. We know what happened then, for Jesus was turned down as the
King of Israel and was thus killed, but not for Himself.
I have studied this prophecy for many years off and on
and I believe that the exact time that this prophecy began was in March of 445
BC as I have already stated and it goes until when Jesus rides into Jerusalem
on what is commonly called Palm Sunday, and it is then that He is rejected as
their King. In Luke chapter nineteen we
see this take place: “37 As soon as He
was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of
the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the
miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." 40
But Jesus answered, "I
tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!’” Why did Jesus say that if this was not said
that the rocks would cry out with these words?
These words were to be said when Messiah came and the Pharisees did not
believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
Jesus goes on to say a bit later on “"If you had known in this day,
even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from
your eyes. ‘” This day was the end of the 483rd year that is written
in Daniel, and thus it stops the prophecy with seven years left on it. In Sir Robert Anderson’s book he figures out
the different calendars and changes the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar
calendar to our Julian calendar which has 365 days in it, while the Jewish or
lunar calendar had 360 days in it. He
figured out how many days were involved even to the point of having tree leap
years deleted because one has to delete a leap year every so many years, and at
the end he comes up with the day that Jesus rides into Jerusalem to offer
Himself as King of Israel and is rejected and then killed a few days later.
Period # 3—7 Years
(Daniel 9:27): “27 “And he will make
a firm covenant
with the many for one week,
but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain
offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate,
even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the
one who makes desolate.’
The book that I mentioned by
Sir Robert Anderson “The Coming Prince” does not speak of the prince as the
Lord Jesus Christ, but the prince that is spoken of in Daniel 9:26 and referred
to as “he” in verse 27. The text says that this prince
will come from the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary which was
Titus and his Roman Legion.
Herod’s temple was a beautiful building that Titus did not want to
destroy, but there was gold in between the huge limestone blocks and the only
way that they could get the gold out was to tear down the building. Jesus told the people that this would happen,
that not one stone would be left on another:
“43 "For the days will come
upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround
you and hem you in on every side, 44 and
they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will
not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time
of your visitation (Luke 19:43-44).’”
What
prince then is the text speaking of?
It is none other than Antichrist
and this last seven years of this prophecy will begin when this prince who
comes out of the territory of the old Roman Empire will come on the scene and
make a covenant with the nation of Israel for seven years. This period is known as the “Tribulation Period” and what happens during this
period is described in verse twenty-seven of Daniel along with chapters 6-19 of
the book of Revelation. This even
is still in our future, but as we look at one key element that happened in May
of 1948, and that is that Israel became a nation again, we know that this time
is not too far off. I have never made it
a practice to set a date as to when these events will take place, and I firmly
believe that the Lord Jesus will return to the clouds over the earth to take
His bride home to be with Him before these events take place. This even we know as the rapture of the Church
and are described in 1 Thes. 4:13-18 along with in 1 Cor. 15:51-54. Our world is much smaller than it used to be,
that is because modern technology and modern weapons where enemies can now be
many thousands of miles away from us and can still kill us. We have weapons that can actually destroy the
entire earth, but this will not take place for at the height of global war as
described in the 19th chapter of Revelations the Lord Jesus will
return to planet earth riding on a white horse with His army with Him and this
will end the last day of Daniel’s 490 year prophecy.”
I realize that this is going to be a very long SD, but
again it is necessary for us to understand what we are beginning to look at in
Revelation chapter six.
“Message of the
verses: We come to the last SD from
the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel and as we look at this topic we will
understand how the Church of Jesus Christ is involved in this prophecy even
though it is not mentioned. Before I go
onto the topic of the strange parenthesis I want to go back to Daniel 9:26, and
at the end of that verse we read: “even
to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.” I believe what is said here is that there
will be continued trouble of the Jewish people right up until the time when
Jesus Christ, the Messiah returns as described in Revelations chapter
nineteen. There has been continued
trouble for the Jewish people since the rejection of their Messiah, and even in
a matter that happened over this past week-end there was trouble for them, and
it will grow worse and worse especially in the “time of Jacob’s trouble” which
is the tribulation period, and especially the last three and a half years of
the tribulation as seen in the prophecy in Daniel chapter nine.
Gabriel did not tell Daniel what was going to happen
between the sixty-ninth year and the seventieth year of this 490 year prophecy,
and that is what this strange parenthesis is.
There are things called mysteries in the Bible and this is something
that had not been revealed, but is now being revealed, and the Church fits into
that category as it was not mentioned in the OT, but was all along in the plan
of God and was revealed in the NT. Paul
speaks of this mystery in Ephesians 3:1-13, “1 For this reason I, Paul, the
prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles- 2 if indeed you have
heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was
made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can
understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men,
as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of
the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s
grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To me, the
very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the
administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created
all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known
through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11
This was in accordance with the
eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in
whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask you not
to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on Daniel chapter
nine with these words: “Some of the
prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 has already been fulfilled, and the rest will be
fulfilled in the end times. We are today
living in the age of the Church, when Israel has been partially blinded and
temporarily set aside (Romans 9-11).
Like Paul, we must have a heart concern for the Jewish people, pray for
them and seek to share the Gospel with them.
Gentile believers have a debt to the people of Israel (Rom. 15:24-27)
because they gave us the knowledge of the true and living God, the inspired
written Scripture, and the Savior, Jesus Christ.” To all of this I say Amen!”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I write this
SD today there is an election going on in the state of Israel, an election that
I would like to see give the current Prime Minister another term for he knows
the importance of what the Bible has to say about Israel, and the rebuilt state
of Israel. I take courage in knowing
that the Lord is in charge of this election as He is in all elections. Since the Lord saved me He took away a dirty
mouth and gave to me a love for His Word and for His people Israel.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to live in and better understand the love Christ has
for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Apollos” (Acts 18:24).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who wrote First and Second
Timothy?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/17/2015 10:46 AM
