A Voice In the Wilderness

His acknowledgment of who God is, his acknowledgement of his own sin along with the sins of Israel, and his acknowledgement of their needs… namely God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.

And now we are going to look at how…

God Answers Daniel’s Prayer

God’s Answer…

Let’s look at it together… (Read Daniel 9:20-27)

Meat:

Just as Daniel finishes his prayer, God immediately answers it… and He does so in a very unexpected way.

Daniel pleaded with God to forgive his people's sins and return them to the promised land so they could rebuild Jerusalem and the nation.

And in answering Daniel's fervent prayer for forgiveness and restoration, the Lord gave him an astonishing prophecy. His new prophecy revealed that God would not only forgive and restore Israel but also that a day was coming when sin would no longer run rampant over the Earth.

Let’s dive into this incredible answer to prayer…

First of all… God’s Answer…

1. Came Through Gabriel

v.21 “yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.”

We learned a few things about Gabriel as we looked at Daniel’s vision in Chapter 8.

- He is One of the Three Angels Named in Scripture

- His Name Means: The Mighty One

- And just as in Chapter 8, here in chapter 9 he is A Messenger.

God uses Gabriel once again to bring a message, to bring the answer to Daniel’s prayer… and Gabriel shows up with the answer…

1.1 During the Prayer

v.20-21 “Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God,

21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering”

Gabriel abruptly interrupted Daniel's prayer, at the very point where Daniel was asking for forgiveness in verse 20.

Here is an interesting tid bit… Daniel says that Gabriel came while he was praying and confessing his sin… … There is absolutely no record in Scripture of Daniel committing any sort of sin… In fact, when his enemies were trying to find some wrongdoing in his life, they couldn’t find anything… and they followed him around for days, possibly weeks just trying to find something they could pin on him… and they came up empty…

Now if you are wondering what sin Daniel committed… let me give you the words of J. Vernon McGee and say “that it is none of your business, and it is none of my business. God did not record it in His Word.”

What you need to realize is… Daniel is just as much of a sinner as you and I… and he needed God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness the same way we do.

The Lord had heard Daniel's prayer and knew his heart was genuine… so He sent Gabriel to give Daniel a message… an unexpected answer to his prayer…

and it came …

1.2 At A Specific Time

The end of v.21 says that Gabriel reached Daniel “...about the time of the evening offering.”

Daniel, even though he was living in Babylon, still adhered to Jewish religious customs to measure time. Though physically present in Babylon, his thoughts and emotions remained tethered to Jerusalem.

If the temple had not been destroyed and the priests continued their duties, this moment would have marked the "ninth hour," signifying the offering of the lamb as a burnt sacrifice.

We won’t turn there this morning but you can write this reference down if you’d like to look it up later… In the book of Numbers, chapter 28, we see, in the Law of Moses, a requirement of an unblemished lamb to be offered morning and evening along with a meal offering and a drink offering…

Some of you may be wondering why this is so important… why make such a big deal about the specific time that Daniel’s prayer was answered?…

God has a purpose for every word that is written in Scripture… and as you are studying through the Old Testament, you will notice that the central theme is the coming Messiah…

The time of the evening offering was 3 o’clock in the afternoon… the same exact time that Jesus died on the cross 5-600 years later.

Everything points to Christ… Daniel's request for God to forgive the sins of the people was to be accomplished by the coming Savior's death upon the cross.

So God’s answer came through Gabriel, During the prayer, at a specific time…

1.3 With A Specific Message

v.22 “And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.”

Daniel was on the verge of realizing that the knowledge he was about to acquire wasn't something he could simply gather through study; it had to be revealed to him. And then, even after it was revealed, it required two qualities that only God could give him… and that was wisdom and understanding.

Gabriel didn't present Daniel with a vision like he’s had in the past, full of symbolism. There are no animals, statues, trees, or beasts. Instead, he delivered a straightforward message, using everyday language, about future events.

Gabriel required Daniel to utilize the wisdom and understanding, that was given to him by God, in order to comprehend the significance of the revelation.

v.23 “At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:”

The moment Daniel began to pray God gave the command for Gabriel to leave the heights of heaven with at message that began with telling Daniel that he was precious to God.

Outwardly Daniel was just an old man, dressed in sackcloth, covered in ashes and worn out by the intensity of his prayer. But he was a man of God, and precious at that.

Now before we move on… I want to draw your attention to Gabriel’s comment to Daniel… He tells Daniel “...you are greatly beloved...” meaning that he was precious to God… the question is… Why? What made Daniel so precious and beloved by God?

Daniel wasn’t a priest, he wasn’t a religious leader, and he wasn’t your typical prophet… A prophet yes, but different in the fact that while other prophets primarily addressed the Israelites and their rulers, Daniel's audience included foreign kings and foreign rulers, such as Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.

So, he wasn’t a priest, not a religious leader, not your typical prophet… What made Daniel so precious and beloved by God?…

The answer is simple… … He was a follower of God, living out what he said he believed each and every day, even though he was living in and working in a Pagan environment… That’s it! That is what it takes to be beloved by Almighty God!

Whether you are at school, work, the restaurant, at home, on vacation, or taken captive to a foreign land… If you want to be precious in the sight of God, then you must live out what you say you believe. You must live a life that glorifies Him.

Daniel was a godly man that did just that. He was also a man of prayer and a man who carefully and purposefully studied and applied God’s Word to his life… And that is why Gabriel said “...you are greatly beloved...”

Now lets get into the last few verses of this chapter…

God’s answer came through Gabriel and it…

2. Was A Prophetic Answer

The message that God is going to give to Daniel, through Gabriel, will reveal what God has in store for the future of Israel.

This is the most amazing prophetic passage in all the Word of God, because God not only tells us what will happen, but He gives us the precise timing of these events.

v.24 gives us the summary… “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.”

Daniel has been praying and asking “Oh, God, when are You going to be done with my people? When are You going to bring them to rest, spiritually and physically? When are they going to get their land and their kingdom back?, when can we worship You in the temple?”

Remember, Daniel was prompted to this prayer because of what he read in the book of Jeremiah, and realizing that Israel’s captivity was almost over because of what God’s Word said.

And now God gives him an answer that answers his questions in a deeper and more exhaustive way than Daniel was expecting.

This is kind of like when you ask someone “What day next week works for you to go out out to lunch?” there are 7 possible answers to that question...

Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat…

But your friend goes into great detail of their projected activities for that week…

Sun - we have a potluck at church

Mon - I have dr. appointment… and depending on how that goes, I may have a procedure the following Monday after that...

Tues - I have so and so coming over

Wed - I am headed down state to see some family

Fri - I am doing a golf outing with a group of guys

Sat - I am probably going to be recouping from the golf outing…

So I guess the only day that will work is going to be Thursday.

Your question was answered, but you also recieved a lot more information than you originally expected.

Unlike the illustration that I just used, the extra information that Daniel receives is actually important and is not meant to cause confusion, but is here for us to understand.

Let’s break it down bit by bit…

Gabriel says “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city”…

The Hebrew word translated as “Weeks” simply means “seven.” It could mean seven minutes, seven days, or seven decades.

Here in Daniel 9, 1 week = 7 years… so that means that…

2.1 70 Weeks = 490 Years

7 years x 70 = 490 years…

But some will ask… How do we know that the 70 weeks or 70 sevens is referring to years as opposed to actual weeks or days?

Our answer is found in the 6 fold purpose of the seventy weeks… v. 24 says that the purpose of these weeks is…

“To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.”

Again, this is pointing to Christ…

Looking back in history to the time of Daniel and the time of Christ, we know that it was centuries between the two periods, not days or weeks… as days and weeks were clearly not enough time for the events of Daniel chapter 9 to take place.

So, we know that the weeks of seventy sevens definitely refer to years… and we will get even more specific as we look at the next verses.

But if you look closely at verse 24 you will see how God's plan for Israel includes salvation for the human race as well.

While some of the predictions in this prophecy have already been partially fulfilled, all six will be completely fulfilled at the end of 490 years. God Himself will be the one who fulfills His six-fold plan when Christ returns to set up God's Kingdom on earth.

The final 3 verses give us a prophetic overview of 3 periods of time that will make up the 70 weeks (the 490 years) that Gabriel is talking about. We will get into a little bit of math here as we look at these time periods…

Lets look at the 1rst period… v.25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”

This mentions the first 2 periods of time… 7 weeks and then 62 weeks… and the timetable for these periods of time starts with “… the command To restore and build Jerusalem… ”

So lets take note of that…

2.2 Period #1 = 49 Years: Jerusalem is Rebuilt

Remember as we use the word “week or weeks” we are talking about a 7 year period of time. When Gabriel said “There shall be seven weeks”, he means that there will be 7 periods of 7 years… 7 x 7 = 49… That is where we get the 49 years…

Now, shortly after Daniel’s prayer King Cyrus, around 538BC, did make a decree permitting the Jews to return to their land and rebuild their temple… but Gabriel said the clock wouldn’t start turning until the decree was made to rebuild the city of Jerusalem…

Turn with me to…

Nehemiah 2:1-8

Nehemiah was a Jewish cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes. He was part of the group of Jews that decided to stay in Persia even after they were permitted to go back to Jerusalem when Cyrus was King.

Artaxerxes was king from 465bc - 424bc. Yes, these dates matter… … Now look at what Nehemiah says… (Read vv.1-8)

This is the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem… in the 20th year of Artaxerxes’ reign… which would be the year 445bc… and 49 years after that takes us to 396 B.C. which would be right around the time of the Prophet Malachi, who close the Old Testament writings with the words…

“Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” These would be final words, spoken by God, through His prophets, for the next 400+ years… “Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”… I think that goes right along with His message to Daniel, at the end of v.25 of Daniel 9, when Gabriel said that Jerusalem will be built again “even in troublesome times”

That’s the first period… the first 49 years… starting with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and going up until the beginning of what is known as “the 400 silent years”. The between the Old and New Testaments.

2.3 Period #2 - 434 Years: Messiah Dies

v. 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off,”

Again with the math… 62 x 7 = 434 years and Gabriel says that after those years are done, the Messiah will be cut off… This prophecy predicts the Jewish Messiah would be rejected and killed (or cut off).

This series is all about the Sovereignty of God… how He is in complete control over everything… and this just shows how exact and precise He is.

If you add together the number of years from the first and second periods that we have just discussed…

49 years + 434 years… you will get a total of 483 years.

To put this in layman's terms… Gabriel said “From the time that the decree is made to rebuild Jerusalem until the time that Messiah is cut off, there will be a total of 483 years.”

Sir Robert Anderson in his book, The Coming Prince, has worked out the time schedule. From the first of the month of Nisan 445BC (when Nehemiah recieved the decree to rebuild Jerusalem) all the way to the tenth of Nisan (April 6) 32AD there is a total 173,880 days.

Dividing them according to the Jewish calendar year of 360 days, (so he tool 173,880/360) and he arrives at 483 years (69 weeks).

And why does he use the date of April 6, 32AD? … Because it was… On this day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem, offering Himself for the first time, publicly and officially, as the Messiah.

The Lord showed Himself to the Jewish people as their Messiah, and within a few short days He was cut off by crucifixion.

Now if that isn’t precise enough for you…

Look at the next thing that Daniel is told… v.26b “And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”

this prophecy predicts the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the death of The Messiah and it predicts that after that some people will come and “destroy the city and sanctuary and the end would come like a flood.”

The first two predictions have happened… and a brief look at history will reveal that this has happened as well…

In 70 A.D., Roman armies under Titus surrounded the city and its end came with a flood. Josephus, the historian who was an eyewitness, records one of the most horrible sieges in of all history.

He describes the terrible days in which Jerusalem was under siege by the Roman armies, how starvation and famine stalked the streets of the city. People died by the hundreds and bodies were stacked up in the streets like cordwood. Mothers ate their own children in order to survive. But finally the city was overthrown.

The walls were breached and the Romans entering in were so angered by the stubborn resistance of the Jews, they disobeyed the orders of their general and burned the temple, melting the gold and silver so it ran down between the cracks of the stones.

In order to get at the metal, they pried the stones apart with bars and thus fulfilled Jesus’ prediction from Matthew 24, that not one stone would be left standing upon another.

Very quickly, lets get back to our 70 weeks… we can see from History that 69 of these weeks (483 years worth) have already been fulfilled… However, when the Jewish people rejected Christ as their Messiah, God decided to stop His prophetic clock and we are currently living in between the 69th and 70th week.

We are living in, what has been referred to as, the Church age and as soon as God is finished with the Church age, the final week, the final Seven years for Israel will begin.... that is our 3rd period…

2.4 Period #3 - 7 Years: The Tribulation

v.27 “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.””

While the world has always known wars and desolations the end of the age will introduce a time of terrible suffering that will climax with the return of Christ.

During this last seven-year period, terrible things will occur. That’s when this “prince who is to come” (mentioned in v.26) (better known as “The Anti-christ”) will appear to be a great man of peace.

From our studies of chapters 2 and 7, we learned this wicked ruler will come from the “revived Roman Empire?” Look once again at the identification in verse 26. It says, “The people of the ruler who will come.” Meaning this prince, this ruler will come from the same people that destroyed Jerusalem in 70A.D.

We know from history, these were the Romans. We know from prophecy this Antichrist will most likely arise, or rule over this European Confederation that is already forming today, the area claimed by the ancient Roman Empire.

According to Gabriel, who is relaying this message from God… During the final seven years, The Antichrist (vs. 27) will: Confirm and then, half way through, break a 7 year peace treaty, desecrate the Temple and finally be defeated when Jesus returns!

Closing:

This was God’s answer to the fervent prayer of His faithful servant, Daniel… and even though this prophecy is directly related to the Nation of Israel, we can glean several things from it…

Let me close this out by saying that God promises that He will always be with us. The last days of human history will bring a period of severe trials, tribulation, and horrible sufferings, especially for those who take a stand for the Lord.

We’re in the gap between weeks 69 and 70. And We don’t know when this 70th week is going to start. Jesus said “No man knows the date or the hour.”

But the reality is, if the first 69 weeks that Gabriel prophesied already happened (and we can verify that they have), then there should be absolutely no doubt in our minds that the final week is going to happen as well…

In regards to this fact, John MacArthur said “when you look at the world around you, sometimes it seems as if you can hear the steps of Christ Himself.”

This answer to prayer must have given Daniel an even greater desire to pray for his nation. Especially as he saw what lay in store… But it must have also given him a sense of great joy, knowing that one day, Israel would be completely forgiven and restored… and that sin would be completely abolished.

This should be our reaction as well. We need to be praying for our nation, our families, our friends. Praying that they would be open and receptive to God’s Word…

And like Daniel… we need to live out what we say we believe, each and every day, so that we too can be precious in the sight of God.

As we look forward to the future Kingdom of Christ, and a world that is free from sin… I’ll quote the writer of Hebrews as he said…

“and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25