THIS MAY TAKE A WHILE—Daniel 9
The family is on a road trip, when one of the kids starts the incessant refrain, “Are we almost there?” The parent replies, “Not yet; we have a ways to go.” Ten minutes later, the question and answer are the same.
“Are we almost there? Are we at least making progress? Sometimes it doesn’t seem like we are! In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Yet we don’t see righteousness prevail, and we don’t see the degree of transformation in the lives of Christians that we hope for.
We pray for our nation, for justice, truth and peace. We pray for our world, where so many are oppressed and without hope or opportunity. Yet we have so far to go.
We pray for people, maybe those in our family, hoping for transformation and growth, healing and restoration, but the answer doesn’t come on our timetable.
We pray for ourselves, seeking a job, healing, or the love of our life. We seek wholeness, victory over sin and evil, success and prosperity, or a breakthrough in relationships, it takes so long, and it is not quite as we hoped.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO WHEN OUR HOPES ARE UNFULFILLED?
Daniel and the people of Israel had been in exile in Babylon for almost 70 years. The covenant blessings promised to Abraham, Moses, and David were on hold. The people had been taken to a strange land, far from the land God promised to Abraham. The temple was gone, along with the sacrifices. There was no king on David’s throne, and no kingdom of prosperity and social justice.
The reason for all this was clear, as Moses warned in Deuteronomy 29:25-26, “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.”
Daniel understood why it happened, but in his old age he trusted that somehow God, in his faithful love, would fulfill his covenant promises and restore his people.
Yet it has been almost 70 years, and Daniel is getting old. Although Daniel has a comfortable life, he is troubled by the condition of God’s people in exile, and the unfulfilled promises of God.
DANIEL TURNS TO GOD’S WORD.
Read Daniel 9:1-2.
We can imagine how thrilled Daniel is, as he reads in his daily devotions:
Jeremiah 29:4-14, “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:…When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Daniel does the math. If he was taken to Babylon in 605, and it is now 539, 66 years have passed. Even if he starts counting from the final destruction of the temple in 587, that makes 49 years—close enough. Jeremiah’s prophecy gave Daniel hope—hope that the exile will soon end, and God’s people will be restored to their home.
DANIEL PRAYS.
Read Daniel 9:3-19.
This is a great prayer.
Daniel begins with praise to God: “great and awesome, who keeps his covenant of faithful love…” (The Hebrew word is “hesed”—steadfast, covenant love.)
Then he confesses the sins of the people. Daniel was a great man of God, but he recognizes that he too is not guiltless. He gives no excuses, and he is specific about the sins that have been committed. Over and over again, he acknowledges that God is righteous. He shows a profound understanding of God’s righteousness, for God’s righteousness does not just punish, but save: (Daniel 9:16) “Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill.”
Throughout his prayer, he appeals to the character of God: “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving,” (verse 9) and, “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” (verse 18)
Will God answer Daniel’s prayer? If he does, will he give him exactly what he asks for?
Read Daniel 9:20-24.
How disappointing! Not 70 years, but 70 times 7!
Had God increased the punishment? Moses warned the Israelites in Leviticus 26:18, “If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.” Seven times seventy years would be 490 years!
Yet the 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecy WERE literally fulfilled, or at least closely matched, by events in history. In 539, the year of Gabriel’s message to Daniel, King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree to allow some Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. (Note: Cyrus was the king of Persia, and Darius was the “ruler” of Babylon under Cyrus.)
The literal fulfillment fell short, however, of what God wanted to do for his people.
The first wave of exiles who returned to Jerusalem were lazy and undisciplined. They failed to live as God commanded, oppressing the poor and being casual about the law of God.
When Nehemiah and Ezra went to Jerusalem several decades later, they found the city in shambles and life in disarray. The people had ignored the law of God, and become like their pagan neighbors. Ezra took a legalistic approach to the law, forcing obedience to the external rules. Unfortunately, his legalism became the foundation for the legalism of the Pharisees in the time of Jesus.
Seventy years was not enough for God to accomplish all he wanted to do for his people. He had bigger and better plans, which would take a lot longer:
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.”
What is the meaning of the seventy ‘sevens’? Is it 70 X 7 years—490 years—or is it symbolic?
Read Daniel 9:25-27.
That is confusing! I once checked 9 commentaries, and found 9 different interpretations!
Some see a fulfillment in historical events in the time of the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes, around 167 B.C. Those events were not exactly 490 years later, but some of the descriptions in Daniel sound familiar: The “anointed one cut off” might be the high priest, Onias. The “covenant with many” might be Jews who welcomed Greek rule. The “abomination that causes desolation” might be the desecration of the temple by Antiochus. The “end poured out on him” might be Antiochus’ defeat at the hand of Judas Maccabeus.
Others do not see the prophecy fulfilled at any point in recorded history, and they see the fulfillment of the prophecy in the “end times,” leading up to the second coming of Christ and the end of life on earth. (Many have elaborate schematics, involving a rapture of Christians, a tribulation, a thousand year reign of Christ in Jerusalem, etc.)
Jesus was familiar with Daniel, of course, and he interpreted the prophecy symbolically.
One day, Jesus was walking near the temple with his disciples, and he told them the temple would be destroyed, with not one stone left on another. His words were fulfilled in 70 A.D., when the Romans leveled the temple. It was a traumatic experience for Jews and Christians, and Jesus told his disciples that when the time came, they should get out of town. He described that event in the words of Daniel:
Matthew 24:15-23 “When you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak…If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.”
Jesus went on to say in Matthew 24:29-30, “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”
When will that happen? Not 7 years after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.! No, it will happen when Jesus returns in glory, and the end comes.
When will that be? In God’s timing.
Jesus said there would be false messiahs, wars, famines and earthquakes. He said there would be false prophets, and the love of many would grow cold. (Matthew 24:4-12) That sounds like our world, AND the world of 70 A.D., AND the world of Antiochus Epiphanes, AND the world of Daniel. It will always be that way—until it is not!
WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?
Daniel prayed for the greatest thing he could imagine: rebuilding Jerusalem. It was a good prayer, a righteous prayer, but God had a greater plan.
How much greater? Listen again to the message God sent through Gabriel in Daniel 9:24,
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city
to finish transgression,
to put an end to sin,
to atone for wickedness,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy and
to anoint the Most Holy Place.”
How would sin be atoned for? Do you think of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross?
How would the Most Holy Place be permanently anointed as a place of forgiveness and grace? Our Redeemer ascended into heaven, where we intercedes for us.
How would God’s kingdom be established in everlasting righteousness? Our Lord sits at the right hand of the Father.
How will transgression and sin be ended? We will all be perfected as children of God, made like Jesus in holiness and righteousness.
Daniel had to wait for all of that. We wait for the end of life on earth, and the beginning of the bigger and better things God has for us.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO WHILE WE WAIT?
Daniel had it right: We should pray.
We should begin our prayers by praising God, as “great and awesome, who keeps his covenant of faithful love…”
We should humbly confess our sins, and acknowledge our unworthiness, while remembering that God is righteous, not to condemn, but to save!
We should repent—turn from all wickedness—and give our attention to God’s truth and God’s law.
We should depend upon God’s grace to give us what we ask, and so much more.
And should ask, even plead for God’s kingdom to come, on earth as it is in heaven. We can ask in confidence, in the name of Jesus, trusting that the One who did not spare his own Son will freely give us all that we need.
And then, believing God, we should stand with a courage and confidence even greater than Daniel.
Our final goal, the end of our journey, may take a while. The journey might be difficult, and we might not always see God’s plan, but in the end, our prayers will be answered, bigger and better than we can imagine.
