Daniel 9:15-27 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Daniel 9:15-27. Let’s go!
Daniel 9:15-18 (NIV)
15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong.
16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.
18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.
On verses 15-18: Why is Daniel not afraid to bring His requests before God? It’s because though Daniel is acutely aware of God’s holiness as well as his and his people’s sin, Daniel also knows that God is full of mercy. I love Daniel’s statement in verse 18: “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.”
Daniel’s right. The reason we can approach God with our requests is not because of how good and righteous we are. Rather, it’s because although our sins are great, we have a God whose mercy is even greater. Since God showed His mercy by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, “[l]et us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).
Daniel 9:19-23a (NIV)
19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill–
21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.
23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed…
On verses 19-23a: As Daniel continues to confess sins and plead to God to have mercy on his people, Daniel sees the angel Gabriel, whom he met years before in an earlier vision in Daniel 8. Gabriel swiftly flies to Daniel with an answer to Daniel’s prayer. Before we look at God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer, notice the following:
– “As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you” (verse 23a): God hears and responds to the prayers of His people. We might not always hear God’s answer to our prayers right away, but that doesn’t change the fact that God certainly hears our prayers and does respond. So never give up praying. The question is not “will God respond?” The question is “will we pray?”
– “for you are highly esteemed” (v23b). In other words, Daniel was well-liked in heaven. Is that because Daniel caught heaven’s attention with the exceptional way he lived? Or is it because Daniel was loved and treasured unconditionally just as God loves and treasures each one of His children? I would have assumed that it was the former, but we don’t know for sure. Maybe it’s both. In any event, what we do know is this: It is so much better and more important to be esteemed by those in heaven than those on earth, for in heaven, where knowledge is perfect and life is eternal is where opinions really count. Live for heaven’s approval, not the world’s.
Daniel 9:23b-27 (NIV)
23…Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:
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.
25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him”.
On verses 23b-27: Verses 24-27 are God’s message to Daniel about what is to come in the future. These four verses are some of the most difficult verses in the Old Testament to understand.
Here is one way that many scholars generally understand these verses:
– A “seven” is a period of 7 years. So “seventy sevens” equals 70 periods of 7 years, or a total of 490 years. Gabriel is telling Daniel that God has planned a period of “seventy sevens” to accomplish a number of purposes for the Jews and for Jerusalem.
– According to verse 24, the purposes of these “seventy sevens” is to put an end to transgression and sin, to atone for wickedness, to make everlasting righteousness available to people, and to “seal up” (that is, to make visions and prophecies unnecessary because the end has finally come). Ultimately, all of these purposes would be accomplished through the first and second comings of Jesus Christ, which (as we will see) are events that mark the seventy sevens. The final purpose of these “seventy sevens” is “to anoint the most holy” which, depending on which scholar you ask, has been taken to mean that God’s people, Jesus Christ and/or a new temple will be blessed and designated as most holy.
– The “seventy sevens” begins when a decree is given that the city of Jerusalem be restored and rebuilt (v25). Trying to pin a specific date or event to this “decree” is difficult. Some scholars believe this decree happened in 445 B.C. when King Artaxerxes I allowed Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. Others say that this decree happened even earlier in 458 B.C. when Artaxerxes I allowed Ezra and other Jews to return to Jerusalem. We don’t know for sure.
– Daniel 9 effectively splits the “seventy sevens” into three groups: the first seven sevens (49 years, beginning with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem), followed by another 62 sevens (434 years), and ending with one final seven (7 years). That is 490 years in total. Here’s how some scholars see the seventy sevens playing out.
– The first seven sevens (49 years) begin with a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (v25).
– The first seven will be followed by 62 sevens (434 years). The 62 sevens will end with the first coming of Jesus Christ (“until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes” – v25). After this, the Anointed One will be “cut off” (v26) and the people of another future ruler (known in parts of the New Testament as the Antichrist) will come and destroy Jerusalem and its temple once again (v26).
– The final seven is essentially the final seven years before Jesus Christ comes again. In the final seven (7 years), a future ruler (Antichrist) will make a covenant with the people (v27) and put an end to the organized worship of God (v27).
– When verse 27 says that this future ruler (Antichrist) will “set up an abomination that causes desolation”, some scholars take that to mean that this future ruler (Antichrist) will set something up in the temple that will cause people not to worship there. Others that take that to mean that this future ruler (Antichrist) will force people to worship himself instead.
– The final seven (last 7 years) will end when Jesus Christ, the anointed one, comes again and judgment is poured out on the Antichrist (v27).
– After the first 69 sevens and before the beginning of the final seven, there is a large gap in time. The first coming of Jesus Christ is when the first 69 sevens end, and the second coming of Jesus Christ is when the last seven ends. In between the first 69 sevens and the final seven is a gap in time (effectively thousands of years) within which Jesus Christ is crucified, killed, and resurrected, the church is born, Gentiles around the world are reached with the gospel and a future evil ruler (Antichrist) comes to dominate the world. The final seven then ends with the second coming of Jesus Christ and the judgment of the Antichrist.
Again, the above is just one of many ways that scholars have tried to understand these four verses from Daniel 9:24-27. Indeed these are some of the hardest verses in the Old Testament to understand. It would be dangerous and unadvisable to jump to any conclusions about their meaning and application without thoroughly studying the various ways that scholars have interpreted these verses.
Father, thank You that because of Your great mercy, we can approach You with confidence and find grace to help us in our need. Thank You that You hear me every time I call and You respond in Your own way and time. Thank You that You are sovereign over all time and over all creation, and that by trusting in Jesus, we are safe in Your hands no matter what. With hard to understand passages of Scripture, please give us Your wisdom to know how best to approach them. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
