The Advent of Love: God's Loving Response

Introduction

Read Daniel 9:20-27

Daniel 9:20–27 (ESV)

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

After Daniel’s prayer of confession, repentance, and pleas for mercy, God immediately sends an answer to Daniel through the Angelic messenger of Gabriel. If you recognize that name, it’s because this Angel does show up throughout the pages of Scripture, specifically again in the pages of Luke. Gabriel speaks to the priest, Zechariah, to let him know that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son and his name is to be John, who will be used by God to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. Gabriel also appears to a young teenage girl, named Mary, in the town of Nazareth, to let her know that she will also bear a son, whose name is to be Jesus.

Don’t miss the connection that Gabriel, who was sent to announce the birth of both John, the forerunner to the Messiah, and of Jesus, the Messiah Himself, is the one who is coming to Daniel to give him God’s answer to his prayer of confession and pleading for mercy.

Gabriel’s message:

Daniel is greatly loved

This is God’s mercy to Daniel to let him know that in spite of the hardship and the captivity and in spite of the people’s sin, Daniel is greatly loved

Sometimes its easy to overlook and forget about God’s love for us as we go through hard times, but we must remind ourselves that God’s love is never ending and always faithful no matter what we are facing or going through.

It might be the hard times is God’s love to redirect our thoughts and attention back to Him, to remind us of our need for Him.

While God will keep His promise to allow His people to return to their land by the end of the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah, the time decreed to put an end to sin will be longer than a simple seventy years.

Gabriel tells Daniel that the end of sin will come after seventy sets of seven years.

There is a lot of details that Gabriel gives to Daniel here in this vision, much of which has been debated by scholars. Opinions abound on what events each of these symbols are pointing us to.

These events are pointing Daniel and us to historical events that will be happening and will take place according to God’s plan.

Exactly what events these are pointing to is greatly debated and is beyond the scope of what we are looking at today.

In short, what we are seeing is that God is in control of history and that He is working all things to the glory of His perfect will.

However, there is a deeper meaning that is easy to miss and overlook if we simply focus on the details of the events.

We will not be getting into any timelines or guesses as to what each of these events might be. Regardless to say, there is going to be a longer time of waiting for God to finally make things right than the simple seventy years that Daniel has in mind. And initially this does not seem like good news to him.

However, we are going to see how God’s love is being displayed here in the seventy sets of seven years, or if we do the math, 490 years of waiting for God to complete His work.

Why Seventy sets of seven?

Well, first if we look at Gabriel’s response to Daniel, we see that there’s more to Daniel’s prayer than first meets the eye.

Last week we talked about Daniel’s humility and repentance for his own sin and for the sins of his people and how that leads to finding joy in God.

That humility and confession flowed out of his reading of the book of Jeremiah and he was looking forward to the end of the seventy years in which God would bring His people back home.

But is that all Daniel is looking for?

Look at Daniel 9:24

Daniel 9:24 (ESV)

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

We see that Daniel is not just looking for a return to home, but he is looking forward to a time when sin is finally finished and God’s people can live in holiness the way God has designed for them.

Part of Daniel’s reading in Jeremiah might have taken him to Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV)

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Daniel is looking forward to this new covenant.

However, Gabriel is telling Daniel that while they might be getting ready to head home, this new covenant is not coming yet.

490 years to what exactly?

Well, there might be a physical 490 years to specific events that are listed, there is something deeper there than waiting an exact 490 years, although that number is not too far off from the time of Daniel to the time of the coming of Jesus.

Again, as we look at apocalyptic literature, we have to understand what the number “seven” meant for God and His people, which may be a literal seven, but also carries with it a deep symbolic meaning.

Seven was a number that symbolized and meant complete.

Back in Genesis, we see the first week of creation was made up of “seven” days. Six days of work and then a “seventh” day of rest. This is called the Sabbath day.

But then, the Jewish law had the people set aside every seventh year as a year of rest for the land and for the people. This year was meant for the people to celebrate God and to allow the land time to rest from producing its crops. Again, seven is the idea that there is a completeness to work and a time for rest.

Next, Jewish law set aside a special time of rest and restoration with every seven sets of sabbath years. If you multiply seven sets of seven years, you come up with 49 years. Every 49th year would be a special Sabbath year called the year of Jubilee.

There were times in which the people might need to sell or lease their land or even place themselves in slavery in order to pay debts or to ease financial burdens. During this special time of Jubilee, all the land that was sold or leased and all the slaves would have to be released and given back to its original owners. All the land would revert back to the family who originally owned it. And those who were in slavery and bondage would be set free. This Jubilee would be a time of freedom and restoration for the people of God. Again it is celebrating the rest that is found in God’s work of Creation and His work among His people.

Now God is telling Daniel that the time for redemption and the eradication of sin would not simply be seventy years. It will be seventy sets of seven years or seventy sets of Sabbath years. If every seven sets of seven years or 49 years was a special year of Jubilee, then this seventy sets of seven years would be a special mega year of Jubilee.

This would not just be a time of rest and restoration.

This is a time of complete rest and restoration, never needing to be worked for again. The work of defeating sin would be ended once and for all and would be finished!

God’s Love in the Cross

This 490 years, or this seventy sets of seven years is leading us to that mega Jubilee, and I hope you can see where this is heading.

If you were to read Luke chapter 1, you will see the angel Gabriel that came to Daniel here in this chapter, is the same angel that appeared before Zechariah in the temple roughly 500 years after the events of Daniel to tell him that his old, barren wife, Elizabeth would bear a son, named John, who would prepare the way for the Lord.

Then Gabriel would go on from Zechariah and appear to a young betrothed teenage girl to tell her that she, who is favored or “loved” by God, would bear a son and name Him Jesus because He would save His people from their sins.

The year of Jubilee is coming! Gabriel is in essence telling these two servants of the Lord, the time is here! “The seventy sets of seven are coming to fulfillment and the end of sin and the time for atonement is at hand!”

These seventy sets of seven years are another way of saying that God is bringing Christ when the time is complete and perfect. Paul would say it this way:

Galatians 4:4 (ESV)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

Roughly 30 years later after this announcement by the angel Gabriel, Jesus would be sitting in the temple and reading from the prophet Isaiah:

Luke 4:18–19 (ESV)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

You see what is going on here? Jesus is the One who is fulfilling this year of Jubilee. In fact, what He redeems and sets free will never again be placed in bondage again. This year of Jubilee will be the last Jubilee ever needed.

And this Jubilee is bringing forth the new covenant that Daniel would have read about in the book of Jeremiah.

Luke 22:14–22 (ESV)

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”

So this seventy sets of seven years is God’s love for Daniel being proclaimed in the cross!

Here’s the thing about Christmas. In Christmas we see the advent of love, not simply because a baby was born, but because that baby was born specifically to die upon the cross.

John 3:16–17 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God is not willing to settle for anything less than the complete eradication of sin and the complete setting His people free from Sin.

Because of the advent of God’s love for us in Christ on the cross, you and I are not simply forgiven for our sins, we have been completely freed from the power of sin in our lives. We have been given new hearts with God’s law written upon them so we can freely and joyfully live in loving obedience to God.

This does not mean there will not still be struggles with sin and temptation, but that sin no longer has any rule or power over our lives. As believers, we have experienced the love of God in our lives that has set us free. Let us demonstrate God’s love to others as we live in joyful obedience to Him.

And as we continue to wait for the second coming of Christ to fully put an end even to our struggles with temptation, let us declare the love of God in Christ to those we come into contact with. This Christmas, we are being reminded of the freedom that has been purchased for us and the love of God to which we are called to declare to the world around us!

God’s Love in Waiting

So, the next question could be, why did it have to take so long? Why didn’t God just send Jesus at the end of the seventy years as the people were going back home?

Part of what we have seen through Daniel’s book is that God is sovereign over history and that all things that happen are happening under God’s perfect plan.

As we look back at the history that Daniel was looking forward to through the visions God gave to him, we do see that the Persians did conquer the Babylonians. And then after the Persians came the Greeks through Alexander the Great. Alexander was a strong pagan warrior who brought the known world together under the Greek Empire. Through this act of conquering and unifying the world, Alexander the Great began to teach the Greek culture and language to the other nations that came under his new empire. The world was learning to speak one unified language.

But eventually, even Alexander’s glorious empire would fall. When he died, his four generals broke his empire into four separate divisions, which weakened the Greek Empire. As the Greek empire was being weakened, there was a new empire on the rise coming out of a city called Rome. The Romans would come through building roads and trade routes throughout the world and would eventually take over the Greek Empire. Not only would Rome bring the known world under a new empire, they would also create a peace between the other cultures and nations that the Greeks were not able to produce. This would be called the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. The Roman empire truly was a melting pot of cultures and nations in a way that even the Greeks could not produce.

So now, you had a common language, Greek, which most people had to learn, even if it wasn’t their native language. This is also the language of the New Testament, in which the letters and gospels were written and distributed. And now you have a peace and a trade route that allowed people from different places to be able to interact with one another.

It was during this time, within this world context that Jesus was coming into the world. Jesus was coming at just the right time so that when He accomplished His work of salvation on the cross, the message of the Gospel would be able to go forth in the language of the world and under a time in which traveling would be possible in a way previously unheard of. God was waiting for this fullness of time so that Christ’s work would not just be experienced by the Jewish people themselves, so that the good news of the Jews would go forth into all the world.

God was being patient, not because He was being slow, but because He is working for the salvation of people from every tribe, language, and nation!

2 Peter 3:8–9 (ESV)

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Here’s the thing, God’s patience is a loving act. Now could God have gotten the Gospel message out, even if He sent Jesus at the end of the Babylonian captivity? Absolutely! But God was working through history in such a way as to bring Christ at just the right time so the Gospel message would easily spread throughout the world with as few obstacles as possible. We can read through the Book of Acts how the Gospel spread like wildfire through the Roman empire and there were both Jewish and Gentile converts who came to find eternal life in Christ because the Gospel came at just the right time!

Just as Daniel and his people had to wait for the right time for the Savior to come, so we too are in the process of waiting as we look back on that first advent, we are Waiting for the second advent where Jesus will return and end our struggle and fight against sin while the cross has freed us from the power and penalty of sin, there is coming a time when Christ’s second advent will release us from the presence of sin. And because of God’s love we live in faith knowing God will keep his promise to send Christ once again so we can keep pressing on trusting in Christ’s love as we share that love with those around us as we wait for that day!

Conclusion