Seventy Sevens
Daniel • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We are coming near the end of this sermon series on Daniel - next week will be the conclusion and the following week is Thanksgiving! mmm…turkey and mash potatoes. I get teary eyed just thinking about it.
As we have been reflecting on the tried and true faith of this remarkable servant of God, I hope you have imagined how remarkable it would be to live a life of complete and total obedience to the Lord - and what miraculous ways God may work through you if every day, every moment, was lived for his glory.
As I read and meditating on Chapter 9 this week, I was awestruck by Daniel’s Remarkable Prayer, which is immediately followed by a Remarkable Response that tells of a Remarkable Future.
And now you know the structure of this remarkable message.
And the church said: we can’t wait to hear it!
Alright then, lean in.
First, we have a remarkable prayer. Daniel, still sitting with his people in exile, had studied the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, and had determined that the time of exile should be coming to an end.
Most likely, one of the passages he read was Jeremiah 29:10-11
“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Seventy years was the time the God alotted for Israel to be punished for their misdeeds and to live outside of their homeland. Their homeland sat desolate, uncultivated, growing wild. You want to know why God chose 70 years to be the length of time?
Well, we are given that reason in 2 Chronicles 36:21
to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
Here is what that means. The laws that God instructed the Israelites under Moses included laws regarding Sabbath rest. We know from the 10 Commandments that #4 is “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The people were to work six days, but on the seventh day, they were to rest and worship God.
The Sabbath laws actually went further. The Israelites were to farm the land and enjoy its bounty for six years, but on the seventh year, the land was lay fallow, the land needed to rest.
Problem is - the people did not do it. So God kept count. Every seven years - he would make a mark in his log book. After 490 years of the people abusing the land, God checked the records and said, “hmmm, you own the land 70 years.”
Daniel knew this - and he did the math. He knew that 70 years was drawing near a close. So what does he do?
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel, the one we have observed as being faithful, obedient, righteous, unshakable, the epitome of holiness - identifies himself as being no better than his people and makes his humble confession. “We have sinned…we have acted wickedly…we have turned away…to us belong shame because we have sinned against you.”
As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.
Daniel then turns to God and prays for mercy.
O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
It is a powerful, heartfelt, bold prayer. It is the prayer of a spiritual warrior. And it is at this point that I start to get convicted.
When have I prayed like that? I pray for my country and my neighbors, I pray when I get discouraged by the state of world we live in, I have no problem identifying as a sinner. But fasting, sackcloth, ashes, laid out before the Lord, repenting of all the ways we have transgressed the laws of the Lord - the One who died for me?
That is a bold prayer.
And the church said: how bold is it?
Bold enough that while he was still praying - we are told the angel Gabriel showed up to deliver a remarkable response, in fact - it is the first time in the Bible we hear of an angel with wings for it says “Gabriel 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.
As soon as Daniel started praying, God gave a Word, and his angel, which those of you who are in the Bible study already know - an angel is a messenger sent to do God’s will - this angel swiftly arrives and the first thing he tells him is “you are greatly loved.”
Going back to my hope for this series, “that you have imagined how remarkable it would be to live a life of complete and total obedience to the Lord” - this is what I talking about.
You are greatly loved - that is made very clear already in God’s Word. Paul’s states in well in...
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
But to have an angel of the Lord come swiftly to you while you are praying and start off with “God sent me here to tell you something - you are greatly loved!” I mean come on! God is so worthy of our faithful obedience.
Daniel was pleading for God’s mercy so that that the 70 years would wrap up quickly and the people could head back home.
In this remarkable response to Daniel’s remarkable prayer, Gabriel expands Daniel’s vision beyond the 70 years of soon to be ending exile to a much more remarkable future!
Turn to your neighbor and say “ooohhh...I can’t wait to hear this part!”
Alright, let’s first listen to Gabriel’s message and then we will need to decipher some math.
I’ll be reading from the NIV translation.
Daniel 9:24-27.
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.
25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out 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 put to death 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 at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Now granted, that may not sound all that remarkable....seventy sevens, 62 sevens, one seven, middle of one seven…what in the world is he talking about?
And to make matters worse, there have been many biblical scholars who have studied this passage thoroughly and I can’t say there is broad consensus on how dates and timelines work out in this vision.
But it also isn’t terribly difficult to see, even if dates aren’t agreed on, just how remarkable this prophecy is.
Nearly all scholars agree that the unit of measure used here is years.
So seventy sevens = 490 years (70x7-490).
It is revealed to Daniel that beyond Exile, there are 490 years decreed and by the end of those years, the following six things will be accomplished:
First two: “To finish the transgression and to make an end of sins,” No longer would God’s people follow their pattern of obedience/disobedience, faithfulness/rebellion. Sin will be no more.
Similar to the vision Ezekiel records in Eze 37:23
They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Second set: “To make reconciliation for iniquity.” and “To bring in everlasting righteousness”
People will be made right with God and their behavior will be morally right.
Third set: “Seal up the vision and prophecy.” - in other words, all prophecy will be fulfilled and “To anoint the Most Holy” - the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt and anointed by God.
Daniel is being told that after a set period of time, God’s Kingdom will be fully established.
Gabriel then breaks down the 490 years into segments related to certain events.
This is where scholars tend to disagree - when does the 490 start, when does it end, is it consecutive years or is there gaps?
Even so, there is some remarkable things to consider.
Daniel 9:25 (ESV)
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 sevens. Then for sixty-two sevens it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
Seven sevens + 62 sevens = 483 years. If the decree to restore Jerusalem is connected to when King Artaxerxes decreed that Nehemiah could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall (which is found in the 2nd chapter of Nehemiah) - then we are looking at March of 445 BC as the start time. The Hebrew calendar year had 360 days in it because it followed the cycle of the moon - so taking that into account - we add 483 years and we end up at April 32 AD. That happens to be around the time many believe Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people sang Hosanna and declared him Messiah. The “coming of the anointed one, a prince.”
Daniel 9:26 (ESV)
And after the sixty-two sevens, 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.
Same period of time, the anointed one is cut off. Jesus is crucified.
The vision ends with the destruction of Jerusalem which occurred in 70AD by the Romans.
That is pretty remarkable.
A remarkable prayer followed by a remarkable response telling of a remarkable future.
Historians have noted that anticipation of the coming Messiah was high when Jesus was born. The Jewish people were likely familiar with Daniel’s timeline.
Remember the Magi from the East came looking for the new born king?
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
How did they connect a star with the king of the Jews? A little speculation here - but it is likely they were Persian Magi - familiar with the ancient writings of the famous Hebrew Magi that served the Persian kings and could interpret dreams.
There are parts of the vision that Gabriel gave that are not completely fulfilled as of yet.
They will be when Jesus returns.
In the meantime, let’s live the remarkable life of complete and total obedience to the Lord.
Amen.