I'm always amazed by how people of our generation go about their daily routine completely indifferent to the trends and perils of our time. Why do our diplomats sit in solemn counsil vainly trying to bring about national and international peace? Why do presidential candidates promise a new and glorious era ahead for democracy?
As sincere as their intentions may be, they nevertheless reach false conclusions and indulge in misplaced optimism because they are not students of the prophetic Scriptures. Therefore, they cannot see history is running in the mold of prophecy and it is moving in the direction of totalitarianism and turmoil.
The only safe place to cast an anchor is in Christ. He will never disapoint our hopes (1 Peter 2:6).
Daniel 9 illustrates the fact that human history is the outworking of a divine program for Israel. The events of the calendar all contribute in some way to God's purposes for them.
Part 1 (Daniel 9: 1-19)
A study of the prophetic Word inscribed by the pen of Jeremiah motivated Daniel to prayer and penitence. He was turned to sorrow by what he learned about the future of his people. The Apostle Paul felt the same intense sorrow for the unbelieving nation (Rom. 9: 2, 3; 10:1).
The time of the events of Daniel 9 occurred in "the first year of Darius" (vs. 1). Darius is identified as the son of Ahasuerus , racially a Mede and royally a king whom Cyrus appointed to manage the affairs of Babylon.
Sometime during Darius' first year of rule (between 538 and 537 B.C.) Daniel was studying the prophecies of Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10. He was a prophet himself but he was not above a diligent investigation of the written Word. I love Daniel's example here because he proves no one outgrows his need of daily study of the Word of God.
Furthermore, Daniel had no objection to studying the writings of another prophet (vs. 2). Daniel learned from Jeremiah the captivity would last for 70 years. The Jews had not observed the 7th year Sabbath rest for 70 years, and so God sent them into exile and caused the land to lie desolate for the equivalent number of those unobserved Sabbath years.
Knowing only a few months remained before the fulfillment of the prophecy struck, Daniel with mingled grief and gladness. The Jews in captivity were in no condition of heart to receive the fulfillment of the promise. Unbelieving and disobedient people can never expect the blessing of divine promises and provisions.
Daniel set himself to a prayer of adoration, confession, intercession, and petition (vs. 3-19), for he knew this was a condition that had to be met before God would return the people from the land of their exile.
Daniels' prayer is a perfect model, for it begins with a recognition of God's person and power. Daniel worshiped the great and awesome God. He continued with testimonies to God's character: God is faithful not to break His covenant with Israel; He is the merciful God (vs. 4). Daniel then spread the sins of the nation, including himself, before the Lord. They had run the gamut--iniquity, wickedness, rebellion, departure, and defection (vs. 5).
Israel had neither heeded nor hearkened to God's servants, the prophets, who repeatedly tried to recall them to repentance (vs. 6). Daniel vindicated God for what followed Israel's sin (vs. 7-14). They deserved all the confusion, calamity, and curses which had come upon them. God had carried out His threat against the nation in faithfulness to His word.
It is significant that Daniel refers to the Mosaic covenant rather than to the Abrahamic covenant (vs. 11, 13). The people had broken the conditional Mosaic law, but Daniel did not believe for a single moment as a consequence the nation had forfeited forever the promise it would rule for God as a kingdom of priests. Daniel was still looking for a fulfillment of theocratic blessings on the basis of the Mosaic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants.
I think its important to note, the nation will be punished...but God will not revoke or invalidate His promises... Pslam 89 reinforces this.
In my opinion, the fulfillment of the convenants does not depend ultimately upon Israel's faithfulness but on God's faitfullness. Israel didn't deserve anything from God. The nation was responsible for a breach of covenant and earned forfeiture of all the glorious privileges of kingship over the nations, but Daniel pled God's forgiveness and mercy (vs. 9, 18, 19).
Daniel's prayer is a foreshadowing of the repentance and prayer of the nation at the end of the tribulation when the people will mourn over their sin and call upon their long rejected Messiah to come and save them (Zechariah 12:10).
Of course, God cannot fulfill the provisions of His covenant promises while they continue in their sins, but the tribulation judgments are designed by God to bring the nation to its knees, and this is precisely what will happen.
Part 2 (Daniel 9: 20-27)
Daniel's prayer moved Heaven to immediate response. Gabriel was dispatched with information about the nation's future. Flying swiftly, he reached the praying prophet at the time when the evening oblation was formerly offered at Jerusalem. For nearly 70 years the Mosaic rites had been discontinued, but Daniel evidently observed the morning and evening offerings in the only way he could--in prayer facing the beloved city.
With an admonition to Daniel to consider the vision, the angel began to unfold a chronology of events pertaining exclusively to Daniel's people and Daniel's holy city (vs. 24).
Daniel 9: 24-27 gives a schedule of a segment of Israel's national history during which God will carry out the six purposes of verse 24. The history is restricted to 70 -7 year periods... or 490 years. This period has a specific point of beginning and ending.
It commences with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. (The decree was issued in 445 B.C. see Nehemiah 2:3,5,8. Earlier edicts are spoken of in 2 Chronicles 36: 22,23; Ezra 1:1-4; 6:1-5, 8-12; 7:11-26.) The earlier edicts of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes do not qualify as a starting point for this 490 year history because none of them related to the city; they only provided for the rebuilding of the temple.
The 490 years are divided into three segments, and the angel indicates what activites will transpire during these three parts. During the first 7 weeks (49 years) the city with its streets and wall will be rebuilt; then 62 weeks (434 years) will be added to the 7 weeks before the Messiah arrives.
From the commandment to Christ the King, then, a total of 483 years will expire. The termination of these 483 years came on the day of the triumphal entry in March-April A.D. 30, when Jesus Christ, for the first and only time, presented Himself officially as Israel's Prince and Messianiac King.
At the end of the 69 weeks (483 years) the Messiah is "cut off" (Daniel 9:26). Instead of entering int the era of His kingly reign, He receives nothing. Israel rejected His regal claims to the throne of David and sentenced Him to a criminal's death.
The six divine purposes which God intends to accomplish in the nation in the course of the 490 year period were deferred to the last week (7 years). Between the 69th and the 70th week we have an indeterminate period, during which Jerusalem suffers from a flood of invaders. The 70th week did not follow the 69th week successively.
"The" transgression has not been finished; in fact, Israel's final apostasy is still ahead. God has not made an end of the nation's sins; the people are still nationally blinded and continue in their unbelief. The nation has not entered into the provisions of reconciliation; neither has it experienced a practical righteousness.
The prophecies regarding the nation have not been fulfilled, and the temple has not been anointed at the end of the 69 weeks.
All of these promises will be fulfilled to Israel during the course of the 70th week (the 7 year period of the tribulation). During the long interval between the 69th and 70th week Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus (in A.D. 70), and this destruction has been followed by a continual succession of Gentile rulers who have trampled the city and the land under foot. This desolation will continue through the entire present church age and right on into the tribulation era.
The angel told Daniel what would happen in the last 7 years of the seventy weeks. A Roman prince will appear who will guarantee Israel military protection from the "flood" of northern armies. A treaty will be ratified which pledges to Israel territorial sovereignty for 7 years (vs. 27). It assures her of peace with her Arab neighbors.
Israel will rebuild the temple and reintroduce the Mosaic sacrificial system. She will depend upon her national representative and king--the Jewish antichrist--to secure her borders by his diplomatic relations with the roman prince of Europe.
At the middle of the seven-year period the European beast-emperor will ban the Mosaic ordinances and instruct the Jewish antichrist to place an idol in the Holy of Holies. In order to get continued military protection, the apostate Jews will comply with the demand.
Many saved Jews will refuse to worship the image and will not receive the mark of the beast. Their lives will stand in jeopardy. The erection of the image of the European beast is the signal for these saved Jews to flee the city, for on the heels of idolatry will come God's avenger--the northern destroyer.
"Overspreading" pertains to military protection. "Abominations" refers to idolatry. The world "desolate" should be rendered "desolator." God will respond to a new and unprecedented outbreat of idolatry in Israel by sending the king of the North into Palestine to chastise Israel.
The northern armies (The Assyrian) will devastate the land until God has accomplished His purpose, and then the fearful desolator will meet his doom on the mountains of Israel by a divine judgment on the armies. During the northern assault the antichrist has apparently fled, and the European beast has failed to live up to his treaty obligations with Israel.
A moment's reflection on Isaiah 28:14-18 will help to clarify the situation that will prevail during the 70th week. This passage relates the boasting confidence of the people of Israel who will enter into a diabolical alliance with death and Hell (vs. 15). They will place their hopes for political and religious security in lies and falsehood.
They will listen to the lies of the false prophet--the antichrist. He will deceive them into thinking they are safe. God calls the treaty a covenant with Hell because the European dictator and the Jewish deceiver are both energized by the devil (Rev. 16:13).
The Jews imagine these two fiends will protect them from the "overflowing scourge"--the northern desolator. Their confidence, however, is pinned on the wrong object. Military agreements with the west will not save them from the king of the North. The armies of the North will descend like a flood of waters, and God will use the desolator to annul the East-West alliance (Isaiah 28:18).
At first the armies of the West will not retaliate. They will simply deliberate and call for a withdrawal of the troops (Ezekiel 38:13).
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