Sermon - Daniel 9:20-27 - A visit from Gabriel - Littleby Baptist Church - August 16, 2020

So far in this chapter we have seen that Daniel had studied the prophesies given by Jeremiah. Daniel had read that the nation was sent out for a 70-year exile due to their turning their back on God, and Daniel realized that he was living in year 69. Understanding how Holy and righteous God is and how many of his people have not repented and turned back to God, Daniel began to intercede for the people.

Daniel’s faith was strong, and he trusted that God would follow through with the prophecy that had been given to Jeremiah. Daniel believed that God would honor His word and pleaded for mercy for him and the people of Israel.

As we looked at more of Daniel’s prayer last week, it was obvious that he understood that the people deserved the judgement they had received. They did not listen to God, they did not listen to the prophets God sent, and continued to ignore the commands that had been given. They had been warned, they did not listen, so they were judged.

The warning was followed by God saying that He would not forget them, leave them, destroy them, or forget the covenant He made with their ancestors. Once the people returned to God they would be restored.

God kept His word when they turned their back on Him, and being a Righteous God, He would keep His word when they turned back to Him. Daniel interceded and asked God to honor His promise of restoration, in hope that the people would turn away from their sins and turn back to their God.

Daniel poured his heart out for his people, he fasted, put on sackcloth and ashes, and interceded for forgiveness, mercy, and restoration.

As we turn back to Daniel chapter nine something unexpected happens.

Daniel 9:20-21

“²⁰ While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before the Lord my God concerning the holy mountain of my God— ²¹ while I was praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the first vision, reached me in my extreme weariness, about the time of the evening offering.”

As Daniel was laying it all before God Gabriel appeared. While Daniel has seen Gabriel before in visions, I am sure he was surprised to see him standing before him.

Daniel 9:22-23

“²² He gave me this explanation: “Daniel, I’ve come now to give you understanding. ²³ At the beginning of your petitions an answer went out, and I have come to give it, for you are treasured by God. So consider the message and understand the vision:”

Gabriel’s first comments would have been very humbling to hear. Daniel was told that he is treasured by God and that Gabriel was there as an answer to Daniel’s prayers. I hope everyone here knows that they are treasured by God. He loves you and treasures you more than you can imagine. We have the Words of Jesus to tell us these things, but for Daniel hearing them from the angel Gabriel would have been a very humbling experience.

Daniel probably clung to every word that Gabriel had to say.

Daniel 9:24

“²⁴ Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city— to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.”

Seventy weeks… some of your Bible’s may say ‘Seventy sevens’, ‘a period of seventy sets of seven’, or ‘seven times seventy years’. From reading Jeremiah Daniel believed that the exile was seventy years and Gabriel is saying something different. Seventy weeks here means that the time frame is not seventy years, but seventy times the 7 years of the sabbatical cycles. In the law given by God, every seven years the people and the land were to have a Sabbath. Gabriel was saying that the people and the holy city would require 7 times 70, or 490 years to truly be restored.  

Now this is another one of those things that you will find more opinions than commentaries you read. Several of them could not even agree on how many days in a year when Daniel wrote this. One of them pointed out three different opinions on what this all meant and the timing of it. One was that the timing of this vision started 70 years before Gabriel appeared to Daniel and another stated that the word weeks was used but the time frame was really meant to be vague. Weeks could mean periods of time, nothing specific to tie it history. I may be wrong, but neither of these seemed right to me. My focus will be on what made the most sense to me as I studied it.

In the Book of Ezra, we see that in the first year of Cyrus the king that 42,360 people returned to rebuild Judah and Jerusalem. The seventy years of exile comes to an end, but it is not to the level that Daniel had been praying for and expecting.

The vision though is really pointing to something greater.

Gabriel is telling Daniel that over a period of 490 years God will bring rebellion to an end, stop sin, atone for iniquity, bring everlasting righteousness, seal up or complete the vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy place. The questions that come to mine are when did the 490 years start and what did this look like?

Daniel 9:25

“²⁵ Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an Anointed One, the ruler, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times.”

Gabriel is answering the first part here in stating that the clock starts ticking when the decree is issued to rebuild Jerusalem. In Nehemiah chapter 2 we find king Artaxerxes issuing a decree to rebuild the city and its walls.

As with the overall interpretations, the specific years varied in the different commentaries. The dates I am using paint a realistic picture of the events but may not be exact. King Artaxerxes issued his decree around 450 BC and seven weeks of years, or forty-nine years later the walls and the City were rebuilt roughly 401 BC. Sixty-two weeks of years later an Anointed One, the ruler will arrive. If we do the math, sixty-two times seven is 434 years, which brings us to 33 AD. The year of our Lord’s crucifixion. 

Daniel is being told that an Anointed Ruler, our Lord Jesus, will come and bring an end to rebellion, put a stop to sin, atone for iniquity, pave the way for righteousness, fulfill prophecies, and bring an anointing to the people.

Gabriel is saying that Jesus will be coming to pave the way for the people to have access to God. Jesus will provide the path for sin to be forgiven and for people to be made clean and holy. As prophesized Jesus will come to set the people free.  

The last words of verse 25 ‘in difficult times’, would point that at the end of 69 weeks of years the people of Jerusalem would be faced with difficult times. Living under Roman rule was a very difficult time for the Jewish people.

Daniel 9:26

“²⁶ After those sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the coming ruler will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come with a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations are decreed.”

After the sixty-two weeks, meaning after the 49 years from the first 7 weeks, plus the 434 years from these 62 weeks, the Anointed One will be cut off. One of the prevailing beliefs is that the end of the 62 weeks is the original Palm Sunday and a few short days later the Messiah was crucified, and He had nothing. Meaning when Jesus died on that cross, He had followers, but the people of Israel, as a whole, flat out rejected Him, His kingdom could not be established at that time, and when He took on all the sin He was separated from the Father. He Had Nothing.

John 1:11

“¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

Jesus came to His people, He came to the throne given to Him by the Father, but His people would not accept Him.

If we read the rest of verse 26 again.

“The people of the coming ruler will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come with a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations are decreed.”

Those that rejected Jesus will be punished, the city and the temple will be destroyed. In 70 AD both of those things happened. The judgement was carried out, but it did not end there. This verse tells us that war will continue until the end, meaning that Jerusalem will be a place of conflict and war until the second coming of Christ. If you were to go to Jerusalem today, there are parts of it that are not safe for non-Muslim people. It is a place of constant conflict.

If the first 69 weeks of years ended on that first Palm Sunday, what happened to the 70^th week?

Daniel 9:27

“²⁷ He will make a firm covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing of the temple until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator.”

The 70^th week is the final seven years leading up to our Lord’s return. The antichrist will come and make a seven-year covenant with the nation of Israel offering to bring peace for one week, or for seven years. Peace that will not last. In the middle of that week or three and a half years into the peace agreement, the antichrist will break the covenant with Israel.

It says that the antichrist will put an end to sacrifices and offerings, which tells us that this will take place after the temple of God is rebuilt. They have not started building the temple yet, but the time is coming. There are two red heifers that were breed in Israel that are believed to qualify as perfect sacrifices needed to dedicate a new temple, they have remade the altar, they have many of the utensils, now all they have to do is build the new temple.

A time of peace, the temple of God being built, Old Testament sacrifices being restored, then stopped by the antichrist. The false prophet will desecrate the temple of God and force people to worship the antichrist instead, until the Christ returns.

Gabriel was letting Daniel know that the exile was coming to an end, but it was not going to be a time of peace and prosperity. The people had turned their back on God and would deal with conflict and war until the Lord’s second coming.

History has shown us that the 69 of the 70 weeks of years have come to pass. Prophecy has been fulfilled by the building of the city and its walls, the life and death of our Lord, but the thing is… there is more to come. We need to keep our eyes open and our ears to the ground. The more of God’s Word I read, the more prophecy I study, and the more I pay attention to what is going on in the world, it is obvious to me that we are getting close to the return of our Lord. The signs are there, we need to keep a watchful eye. Study the Word of God and watch for the signs.

God Bless,

Robert