Breathe Easy, Jesus Wins!
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Who here is a planner? You have to have a plan for what you’re going to do that day or else you’re going to be anxious or stressed. You have those who don’t care for plans and are up for whatever happens whenever it happens (every family has a few folks like that)… but then you have those who have to have a plan because it gives them some semblance of control and helps calm their fears and worries along the way. I remember as a child going on vacations with my parents and my mom and I were very much the planner type people - we wanted to know where we were going, what we were going to do, and how long we would do it so that we could, you know, plan! Then there was my dad - a good planner, but he didn’t really care about having a plan. He wanted to go and relax. Plans sure are nice at times, but they can also get us bent out of shape if they don’t go according to schedule or if we are a planner person and we don’t fully know the plan, that can also cause some issues for us!
There are times where it would be nice to be able to fully see God’s plan, wouldn’t it be? Not just the broad strokes of His plan, but the details… As a child sometimes we wonder what our future will look like, who we will marry, what job we’ll have… But God doesn’t give us all of these details, does He? Why would He not do this? So that we fully trust in Him and not in ourselves and our own understanding or ability. We know God’s plan for His people is to make us more like His Son and to share His Gospel throughout this crazy world. This is what we know about God’s plan and what we know is enough.
As we arrive in the end of Daniel 9, we come to one of the most controversial and debated and discussed passages in the entire Bible. Chapter 7 is up there, but the end of Daniel 9 is for most Bible students one of the hardest to understand… yet so many people base their entire eschatological charts, graphs, and clocks based on this incredible difficult passage. To borrow from Alistair Begg, “What I’m about to now unfold for you will annoy some, disappoint others, confuse many, and perhaps, encourage a few.” This is God’s Word. This is God’s plan for us, His followers. While there are many things here that are debated, there is a truth that every believer can rejoice in: We can breathe easy when we think about the end, because Jesus Wins! Evil will be judged. The redeemed will rejoice. Let’s read this incredible text together and see a glimpse of God’s plan for His creation.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Nothing here is left to chance, church. God has a plan. We see the word decree in this text - God has a perfect plan. He is in control. His plan will come to pass! Let’s give Him thanks for that perfect plan this morning.
God Providentially Answers Our Prayers (20-23)
God Providentially Answers Our Prayers (20-23)
Last week we left off with Daniel’s prayer in verses 1-19 of this chapter. Is anyone else thankful that we serve a God who not only hears our prayers, but who answers them? Do you remember Daniel’s prayer? He praised God for who God is and what God has done. He repented from the sins of both he and the people as they rebelled against God and His covenant. He asked God to intervene and remember His promise. He trusted in God to hear and respond. This is how we pray as well, we Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield to our God knowing that He hears our prayers… but God doesn’t just hear our prayers. Look in our text and what happens here. While Daniel prays, while he was confessing his sin and the sins of the people, Gabriel appeared once again and brought with him God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer.
Daniel’s prayer was that God would be glorified and restore the people when the time was right so that others would see the greatness and faithfulness of God! God delights in hearing His people pray and in answering the prayers of His people. We see here that God sends Gabriel to answer this prayer - but I want to quickly draw our attention to something remarkable in verse 21. Notice when Gabriel appeared to Daniel, while Daniel was weary from praying and fasting for quite some time. This wasn’t a short prayer before bed or anything of the like. This was Daniel’s devotion to the Lord resulting in his personal exhaustion. He prays and Gabriel appears at the time of the evening offering. This is so significant! Daniel had been in Babylon for nearly 70 years by this point - a significant number for this chapter’s purposes - but he still prayed to God during the time in which the Israelites would have offered sacrifices for their sins. What was Daniel praying for during this time? He was confessing his sins to a God who alone is able to forgive. You could take the man out of Jerusalem, but you couldn’t take God’s Word out of the man. Friends, whenever we have hidden God’s Word in our heart, it sticks and shows up in ways that we can only imagine. For Daniel, he knew God’s Word. He knew to go to God in His moment of need. He knew that God hadn’t abandoned them - He knew that God still answered prayers - He had seen this in the first 6 chapters of this book as God saved his life on 2 occasions and also the lives of his 3 friends in chapter 3. God providentially answered Daniel’s prayer throughout this book! Why would God, who created all things, who is holy, who is righteous, who is all-powerful, answer the prayers of a sinner like Daniel? Have you ever asked yourself that question? This is what the Psalmist says in Psalm 8
4 what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?
Who are we for God to remember us and look after us? Daniel 9 answers this - Gabriel says that you are dearly loved or treasured by God. Understand this church, God greatly loves His servants. From the minute that Daniel began to pray, God immediately sent forth an answer. Do you see that in verse 23? At the beginning of your prayer, an answer went out. Daniel obviously had been praying for a period of time because he was exhausted from praying… but God immediately heard and immediately answered. It might seem like we are waiting on God to answer, but in actuality, God has the answer ready to go… He simply waits for His people to call on His name. This is why James 4:2 says that
2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.
God calls on us to pray to Him and this is what Daniel does. We have the ability to do this because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We see that Daniel is treasured by God - isn’t this a description that you’d love to be said of you? Are you ready for something even greater? If you’re in Christ, one day you’ll hear this phrase: Well done, good and faithful servant! How is this possible? Only through the finished work of Jesus Christ in our place. Not through our works. Not through our perfection. But through Jesus. We are able to have our prayers heard and answered only because of Jesus. This gives us hope and peace and should be the basis for us to pray as we talked about last week for ourselves, our family, our church, our community, our country, and our world. God answers prayers!
God Perfectly Accomplishes His Plan (24-26)
God Perfectly Accomplishes His Plan (24-26)
Now we go a layer deeper in this passage as these final 4 verses are the source material for countless books, articles, commentaries, sermons, conferences, charts, graphs, and arguments. It would be impossible to accurately share every single view that is out there concerning these verses as there are dozens upon dozens of views. In fact, I listened to 5 sermons on this passage on Monday and heard 5 different views from faithful pastors that I look up to and ones that I know many of you do as well if I were to share some of their names. Lots of views here - what we’re going to do in this sermon is we’re going to look at where there is a consensus and then we’ll look at where people go different ways in the interpretation process and then we’ll wrap up with the view that most closely aligns with our text. As we do this, 2 quick rules with Biblical Hermeneutics (Interpretation)
Context is King to Clarify Meaning
Go to Clearer Passages to Understand Complex Passages
Helpful tools when looking at apocalyptic literature which is the genre of Daniel 7-12 - we can’t read and understand this like we did chapters 1-6 which were historical narrative
Where is there agreement in what follows? We see 70 weeks are decreed by God. This isn’t talking about 70 Weeks, though. Literally the text says “70 7’s” are decreed. 70 groups of 7. Do you remember looking at Jeremiah 29 last week with God’s prophecy to the prophet Jeremiah that Daniel understood? What was that promise in verse 10?
10 For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place.
70 years! The context of this prayer and God’s answer is years. We might understand it like this, “Seventy weeks of years” or 70 x 7 years or 490 years. Every commentator, pastor, and scholar agrees here that this is in reference to 490 years in verse 24. There isn’t a bunch of agreement, so we’re going to take it where we can here! This is God’s perfect plan and it involves 490 years or 7 x 10 x 7.
What is the big deal about these years? Everyone wonders, are these literal years or are they symbolic years? That might seem like a silly question, but consider what we see in the Bible at times.
21 Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?”
22 “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.
So what Jesus is saying is to get out a notepad and keep track of how many times someone wrongs you, and once they wrong you 491 times, you no longer have to forgive - right? Did I interpret that verse properly? Absolutely not! What is Jesus saying? You have been forgiven by God and you are forgiven in order to forgive - completely and fully and finally. 7 represents perfection and 10 represents completion in Scripture. That is the thrust that Jesus is getting to in Matthew 18. So there are times where we see these numbers mean more than just a numerical designation but an idea of completeness or fullness or perfection. Some interpret this figure in that way - when the time was right, the next thing happened. Understand, with apocalyptic literature that can be true and faithful to the text. But that’s likely not what we have going on here.
In Jeremiah we heard there were 70 literal years of exile and they were coming to an end - do you think Daniel was getting excited about this? Wouldn’t you be excited if you were in a foreign land and God told you that it was almost time to go back home? That would be great news! But then God shares here that there is more time than just these 70 years. There will be more hardships to come. There is good news and bad news here. As Peter Gentry shared, “You can get the people out of Babylon, but how do you get Babylon out of the people?” It takes longer than 70 years.
Whenever God sends His people into exile, they are restored in 2 ways: They would physically return to the land but they would also spiritually return to the Lord. God is not only promising them that they will return, but something significant will take place when they do. What will happen when the people get back to Jerusalem? The same problem. Worshiping false gods. Giving into temptation. Not trusting in the Lord. Eventually, rejecting the Messiah. Here’s the problem - yes, the Israelites returned to the land but many did in unbelief. To return without Jesus is to be headed on the highway to hell because your ethnicity doesn’t save you - it never has and it never will. Your last name will not save you. The country you were born in will not save you - it seems like that ruffles feathers in the days in which we live, but I assure you it’s just Bible. Acts 4:12
12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
How are people saved? The only way anyone has ever been saved is by grace through faith in Christ - before Jesus the sins of faithful people were postponed under the Old Covenant by sacrificing bulls and goats… but Jesus alone came to forgive and take away sins once and for all. This is hard but it’s what we see in the Bible, this is all pointing us to Jesus. This isn’t just about the people getting back to the land, this is about God sending His Son to save the lost sheep and bringing about this 5th Kingdom in Daniel 2 that will not be shaken. How does God accomplish this 5th and final kingdom? Isaiah 53
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
Who is the “he” in Isaiah 53? Jesus Christ - the Suffering Servant. Look at verse 24. Who does these things?
Nearly every commentator agrees that the things that take place in verse 24 are fulfilled by Jesus Christ - Jesus brought rebellion to an end. Put a stop to sin. Atoned for iniquity. Brought in everlasting righteousness. Sealed up vision and prophecy. Anointed the most holy.
When Jesus Christ died for sinners on the cross of Calvary, He paid for your sins in full and brought an end to your rebellion. He holds you fast and sustains you. Do you remember what Romans 8:1 says? No more condemnation for those in Christ! This doesn’t mean that you stop sinning whenever you get saved - you can ask my wife, I’m still a sinner. But in the court room of God I’m declared innocent because my sin has been atoned for. It’s been paid for! This is what Jesus has done for all who have repented of their sins and placed their faith in Christ for salvation - you were facing death row because of the wrong that you have done. Maybe you think that you haven’t murdered anyone and that this consequence doesn’t seem fair. You are guilty of something worse - treason in the eyes of a holy God who created you. We deserve destruction because of our sin. We deserve punishment from God… yet through Jesus, we receive peace from God. This isn’t fair, it’s grace. We are born in sin, but because of Jesus, we don’t have to stay there - there is forgiveness and freedom found in Him.
Next we see that there will be everlasting righteousness - isn’t it good news that you don’t have to worry about losing your standing before God? The works that couldn’t save you cannot un-save you either. This is God’s work and God finishes the work that God starts. In fact, we see in the book of Hebrews that Jesus is the final revelation or Word from God. We have all that we need as Jesus fulfills so many of these Old Testament prophecies. Finally, we see that God’s decree includes the anointing of the Holy Place. The problem with this translation is that the word “place” is not in the text - more accurately it would be this “the most holy one.” Let me ask you this, who is the anointed one? The Messiah - the Christ. This is all about Jesus!
Why did Jesus have to come in the first place? Because of our sins. Because we are covenant violators. This is chalked full of covenantal language as the entire Old Testament is. In God’s covenant with Israel there was a command to give the land a rest - a sabbatical year every 7th year.
3 You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years.
4 But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.
The land was to rest on the sabbath. Why did Israel get in trouble? They violated the covenant with God and one of the ways they violated the covenant was by not allowing the land to rest - they worked hard and they wanted to keep the extra. We don’t know anything about that, do we? Working hard in order to try and get ahead but in actuality we disobey whenever we do this. Here the Israelites are being punished, because they violated God’s covenant
19 Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple. They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles.
20 He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian kingdom.
21 This fulfilled the word of the Lord through Jeremiah, and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until seventy years were fulfilled.
The land enjoyed its sabbath rest until the 70 years were fulfilled. Again 70 or 7 x 10 = they were punished for the complete amount of time necessary according to God’s plan. But what came after these sabbath rests and sabbatical years?
8 “You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to forty-nine.
9 Then you are to sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement.
10 You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan.
After 7 sabbath rests, or 49 years, or 7 groups of 7s, there came a 50th year of Jubilee where debts were repayed. Why all this background? How does this help us? It helps us to see the miracle that verse 24 truly is! The people are brought back and what do they experience? An end to sin. Mercy. Forgiveness. This is God declaring the ultimate year of jubilee as atonement is accomplished as the Messiah takes care of sin once and for all! This is the decree from God - salvation is coming. Sin is forgiven. No more sacrifices need to be offered. Is anyone else thankful for Jesus Christ?
We’re good through these first few verses but now is where we see some distinctions arise. We see that these 70 weeks are broken down into 3 parts: 7, 62, and 1. These final verses are the launching pad for Dispensationalism to insert a gap between the first 69 weeks and the final one and in Dispensational theology this gap is called the church age. 1 week turned into 2000 years. I was raised in this teaching as I know many of you were as well growing up in SBC churches… as we study God’s Word and as we look more at how Christians have understood this passage for 2000 years, we realize that no one believed this until the 19th century. As a result of this, there are differences of views on what we’ll see from here on out and here’s my promise, are you ready? I don’t know everything and I will not pretend to. I do believe in God’s Word and I’ve studied this passage as best as I can and what will follow is my interpretation of what I believe this text says. If you disagree over a detail or a person or a reference, that’s fine - I won’t be an eschatological jerk and I trust you won’t be one either! This passage is hard, but we see that God is accomplishing His plan through it all.
4 promises that we all agree on
God promises to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple (25)
God promises that His anointed one will die (26a)
God promises that Jerusalem will be destroyed (26b)
God promises that a Covenant will be confirmed (27a)
Promise 1: This is good news! Jerusalem will be rebuilt in answer to your prayer. When did this happen? The decree went out in 457 BC as Artaxerxes sent the Israelites back as we see in Ezra 7:11-26 as they go home and do in fact rebuild the temple. Are you ready for something incredible? What happens 483 years after this? We get 26 AD which is around the time in which Jesus was baptized and, anointed, as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. God promises to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple and from the initial 7 weeks to the 62 weeks that follow, we do not see a break. We see that these are consecutive weeks, broken up into two parts 7 and 62. God fulfills this promise.
Promise 2: God promises that His anointed one will die. AFTER these 69 sevens, we see that the good gives way to the bad - verse 26 - the anointed one will be cut off. He will die. Sadly, many people in the Old Testament missed this just as many Jewish people today do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Why is this the case? Why do people today not believe that Jesus is the only way to be saved? One of the major reasons is because He died. The idea of a crucified Savior doesn’t make much sense to many people! This didn’t make much sense to Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers. Look with me in Mark’s Gospel.
27 Jesus went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the road he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
28 They answered him, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”
Peter says that Jesus is the anointed one - the Messiah but look at how quickly things turn here!
30 And he strictly warned them to tell no one about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.
32 He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
Jesus told Peter and the others what would happen - that He would die as Isaiah 53:8 tells us
8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
Yet, Peter couldn’t understand this. And many of his friends and countrymen couldn’t understand it then, and many still don’t understand this today. However, friends, if we don’t have Jesus we don’t have salvation. It is imperative to get Jesus right. Do you see that God had a perfect plan here? From the beginning, it was always Jesus!
Promise 3: City of Jerusalem and Temple will be Destroyed (26b). There is tremendous disagreement here in the second half of this verse and in verse 27 as it flows together. When was the Temple destroyed after the coming of Jesus Christ? 70 AD - we know this for certain. The Roman and Jewish wars tell us that there was great conflict here and the temple was destroyed. But we all want to know who is the coming ruler or the prince in the end of verse 26? It depends if you’re “grid” tells you to look forward or backward here. The dispensationalist looks forward here and views a change in this ruler. The belief is that this is a ruler that is yet to be identified - possibly a leader of the European Union named Nikoli Carpathia straight from the mind of Tim LaHaye. The other grid says to look backward as Christ was cut off after the 69th week and we don’t see a gap between the 69th week and the 70th week, so it follows that the 70th week at least could have started when Jesus was baptized and anointed by the Father. Regardless of if your grid tells you to look backward or forward, we see that the city and temple are destroyed. We know that this happened in 70 AD as the Romans flooded into Jerusalem and slaughtered, hold onto your seats, 600,000 Jews during Passover. Do you see how things are going to get worse? Good news and bad news. Yet, God still has a plan. Look at promise 4 in verse 27
Promise 4: God promises a covenant that will be confirmed (27). Based on how you view verse 26, either forward or backward looking in time, your answer in verse 27 will vary wildly as well. Who is the “he” who makes a strong covenant for one week? The dispensationalist who is looking far to the future see’s this as the final antichrist who makes a new covenant of peace with the Jewish people for 3 1/2 years and then breaks it and persecutes them. Are you ready for the problem with that grid? Every grid has strengths and weaknesses - this is why we let the Bible tell us what we should believe and not allow our grid to determine what the Bible means. There are two Hebrew words used in relation to a covenant in the Bible - karat berit means to make a covenant or literally to cut a covenant. If this were a new covenant made in the future by the Antichrist and Israel, this is the word Daniel would have used… but it isn’t the Hebrew word used. It is the second word, “Gavar berit” which means to confirm a covenant already in existence. So, who is the “he” in verse 27? Strictly looking at this passage, it has to be the Messiah who confirms this covenant and in the middle of this week He puts a stop to sacrifices and offerings - how does Jesus put a stop to sacrifices and offerings? By dying on the cross! How long was Jesus’ ministry? 3 1/2 years. In the middle of this week, Jesus dies and as He dies He cries out “IT IS FINISHED!” Church, this is good news!
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
There is no longer a need to sacrifice an animal or a bull or a goat. Jesus sacrificed Himself in our place on the cross of calvary! God’s plan involved Jesus paying for our sins in full! But do you know what happened after Jesus died for decades? They continued offering the blood of bulls and goats to God… do you think this grieved God? You’d better believe it did! What did God do? He provided everything necessary for their salvation and they rejected the blood of Jesus in order to sacrifice more bulls and goats who couldn’t forgive them in the first place. That’s an abomination. So what does God do? He raises up a foreign leader and nation to bring that house down just as He did at the beginning of this book in chapter 1. This is God’s plan. Regardless of the view and grid that we hold to, a plain reading of the text helps us see that God is faithful to His covenant. We can put our glasses on and squint real hard and try to make the tribulation or european union or Nikoli Carpathia fit into this… but a plain reading of the text helps us see that this at the very least makes sense to be pointing to 70 weeks that have taken place but that also point us ahead to something in the future.
God Protects All of His People (27)
God Protects All of His People (27)
What’s the big deal with Daniel 9:20-27? Besides being a loaded passage with lots of firepower and debates surrounding it, we see that this is a passage that reminds the people of God that evil does not win. Suffering will come upon the people of God… but suffering has an expiration date. If you think that all of this is in the past and there is nothing futuristic here, you’re wrong. What do we see? We see a prophecy that took place hundreds of years after God gave it to Daniel but we also see how this prophecy points us forward to the end of time as there will arise a desolator who will stand against the people of God. Who will oppose the covenant of God. Satan will continue to wage war against God and by extension, us as God’s people. There will be a final antichrist, a final desolation, a final man of lawlessness who will persecute God’s people - but what do we see throughout Daniel? God is in control. Jesus wins. If you’re in Christ, though the night is painful, your Savior will protect His people!
This is the hope of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was dependent upon the obedience of the people. Obey and be blessed. Disobey and be cursed. That’s going to lead to problems, isn’t it? What has Jesus done? Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant perfectly as Matthew 5:17 tells us
17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
He fulfilled it perfectly, and as Jeremiah 31:31-33
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration.
33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
God provides this by sending Jesus! But what happens today? How does the finished work of Jesus impact you and I? We’ve seen a lot of Bible study and if you’re like me, my head hurts from all of this! Daniel received the vision and it was hard for him to understand… is anyone else in the same boat? Where is the good news here? Turn to Revelation 12, as we see this follows Daniel 9 very well
1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2 She was pregnant and cried out in labor and agony as she was about to give birth.
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven crowns.
4 Its tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth it might devour her child.
5 She gave birth to a Son, a male who is going to rule all nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
6 The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be nourished there for 1,260 days.
13 When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child.
17 So the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus.
A woman. A dragon. A child. What could this be? It’s clear - the dragon is Satan, the child is Christ, the woman is the people of God. We’re in a world that is at war. We see that God protected and nourished the woman in the wilderness for 1260 days - or 3 1/2 years… the second half of this week. From Acts 1-Acts 8 as the early church grew in number as the Jews in Jerusalem heard the Gospel and believed in Christ as Lord and Savior - the only way any person can be saved. But then persecution broke out. Persecution is still rampant today as the dragon would love to crush those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Here me, we’re at war today! But our enemy is a toothless, fireless, and clawless dragon who loses because Jesus wins. Satan wages war but the outcome is secure - the Seed of the Woman conquers. God protects His people.
14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
This is our hope!
What are we called to do in light of Daniel 9?
We Must Pray
God answered Daniel’s prayer!
We Must Proclaim
We commissioned by Jesus to go therefore and make disciples. This means that we must proclaim who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. We go into all the world and do this starting as Acts 1:8 says with our neighbors and then we go to the nations. Daniel 9 is a message for today and until the end of time because we have a message to share. As persecution and opposition rises up, as sin is celebrated, pride is platformed, and evil continues to increase, we know that things are not as they seem. There is a God in the heavens who is in control. A God who is faithful. A God who loves His people. A throne that is not on the ballot this November but permanently occupied by the King of Creation. We proclaim that Jesus saves sinners and that Jesus Christ Wins! Regardless of your view on end times, this is our hope and this is our motivation to go out and share the Gospel because time is running out
We Must Praise
As the great Adrian Rogers once said regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ, “I’m glad I’m on the welcome committee and not on the program committee.” No one has it all figured out. We must approach this topic with great humility. My prayer today, tomorrow, and in the weeks to come is that we would be a people who allow the Word of God to lead us to praise His name even more as we give thanks to Him for the victory that is ours in Christ. We couldn’t win it ourselves. We couldn’t deserve it. But we do receive it by faith.
There is a victory coming for all who are in Christ Jesus… have you repented of your sins and placed your faith in Christ today? Not do you know Jesus or do you come to church regularly or do you give to support missions and ministries in the church. Do you understand that you are a sinner in need of a Savior? Have you turned from sin? Have you followed through with believer’s baptism and shared with your church family that Christ is your Savior? Between this day and the last day we will face persecution and suffering. Many antichrists have come, and many more will come, and eventually there will be one who will amass a large following and have much power. But his master is nothing more than a leashed lion or a fireless dragon. The worst he can do is kill us - I don’t mean to make fun, but I’m convinced to the core of my being that all death can do is make my life better because death takes me to Jesus. Are you there? Believer, one day when you stand before Jesus, you won’t even remember the pain and the stain of this life. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. We suffer, but we get glory. This is what filled Daniel with confidence as he stood before those lions - this truth must fill us with confidence today, tomorrow, and until the last day.
God’s Word strengthens us to serve Him - who are you serving today?
