Daniel Part Vii Series

INTRODUCTION

• We are in the 7th part of series on the life of Daniel.

• The first six chapters are historical stories (10 pictures of Daniel), but the last six are prophecy.

• Daniel is the book of Revelation of the Old Testament.

• In fact the only way to understand both books is to use them to clarify each other, though they were written 600 years apart.

• Chapter 9 is certainly a prophecy but it is also a prayer.

• Daniel chapter 9 is 2 parts…

o Vss. 1-19 - Daniel’s prayer,

o Vss. 20-27 - God’s answer, prophecy

I. PARTNERING WITH GOD

• Many of us believe that life just happens, but the Bible teaches exactly the opposite.

• Others believe God is in control and there’s no changing it.

• That isn’t in the Bible either.

• What the Bible teaches is that God moves with destiny hand in hand with people who chase after Him.

• When we meet Jesus and His blood heals our brokenness something else takes place.

• We are invited into destiny.

• Into prayer that changes things. Into lives that impact others.

• Daniel chased after God and became part of that destiny.

Daniel 9:1-6

During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land.”

• This prayer goes on for 19 verses where Daniel prays three things primarily:

• He worships God for His faithfulness, he confesses sin, and he acknowledges God is just.

• He’s been in Babylon for his whole life. He was carried off at the beginning of the end for Jerusalem. Something Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah.

Vss. 1-2 – It is clear Daniel read his Bible and knew God’s promises.

Something you must do if you want to touch others, know His promises and live out of them.

• He’s in his 80’s and he knows the 70 years spoken of by Jeremiah are almost up.

Jeremiah 25:11–12, “This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.’”

• This was written in 605 BC, likely the year Daniel was carried into Babylon as a teenager.

• Cyrus issued the decree releasing the captives in late 538/537 BC and the exiles returned shortly thereafter and Ezra and Nehemiah were written about that journey back.

It is both historical and spiritually very important. God keeps His word and His promises. Many of you know this prophecy from a much more famous text - Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans that I have for you’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”

II. GOD’S DEEP DESIRE TO LOVE PEOPLE

• Daniel understood that God loved His people and that He had destiny for them.

• But he also got this one thing so many of us miss, it isn’t just going to fall out of heaven for us.

• It is a battle we are to partner in and believe for.

• Not just surrender to the circumstances in life.

• He delights in people who trust in Him and put our hope in Him.

Jeremiah 29:10 -14

“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13‘You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. 14‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”