God Rules Our Hope

As a boy, my father read to us from a giant Bible. This was often a nightly rhythm. We turned the TV off and were told it was time to get serious about going to sleep—at least, that is what Mom and Dad wanted.

We were four boys and one sister hanging on to Dad, trying to nestle into a comfortable spot to hear the nightly Bible story. Sometimes, there was even a picture to look at.

He would read stories of biblical characters like Samson, Ruth, Stephen, Esther, and Josiah in vivid detail and voice. He pictured the words in action for us before we could read them.

All that was fine and happy until my mother told Dad that the storytelling had gone a tad too far because, you see, my brothers and I asked for something to make fire with the day after he told us the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I especially loved the stories of Daniel and the fiery furnace and Daniel in the Lion's Den. We read about how Daniel did what God said no matter what anybody tried to do to him and his friends. He had faith that God was good and in control.

Context

Let us first set the context for today’s message.

The book of Daniel combines stories of personal faithfulness during the Babylonian and Persian exiles in chapters 1 to 6 with visionary prophecies concerning the rise and fall of empires, the coming of the Messiah, and the ultimate establishment of God's eternal kingdom in chapters 7-12. We have summarized its theme as the title of this series: “God rules over all.”

In chapter 8, Daniel receives a vision of a ram and a goat, depicting the rise and fall of empires and setting the stage for the unfolding future.

In chapters 10-12, Daniel receives an extended vision with detailed prophecies about future conflicts and the ultimate deliverance of God's people.

Frame

As we enter Daniel 9, recall that the 1st Temple built by Solomon is destroyed and desolate. Judah's royal family and priests remained exiled for nearly 70 years. Babylon has fallen and is now ruled by the Meads and Persians. Through all that, God has placed Daniel in the courts of successive empires, but the exile remains humiliating. God’s discipline of his people is all about him.

Psalm 137:1–4 (ESV) 1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth (merryment), saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

Their identity as a people is grounded in a place that God gave them. The faithful longed to go home to Jerusalem, where they could rebuild and worship God again as a people.

The main idea of this sermon is (repeat)

God loves people who humbly confess their sins and, by faith, commit themselves daily to trusting in his plans for them.

I invite you to turn your Bibles to Daniel Chapter 9 (repeat).

Point #1:

(1) Daniel seeks God’s will. (v1-19)

Let's look at how he goes about it in verses 1 to 3.

(1a) Daniel reads God’s word. (v1-3)

Daniel 9:2 (ESV) 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

What was he reading? In Jeremiah chapter 25, God decrees an exile to Babylon for his people. It is important to remember that the usual purpose of prophetic literature is to encourage the faithful. In Jeremiah chapter 29, we read words that would have encouraged Daniel.

Jeremiah 29:10-12 (ESV) 10 “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. 11 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. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

Daniel “understands” that the time of the exile is nearing an end. What does he do in response? He begins to pray.

Think about your own experiences with God’s word. Have you ever been moved to pray? What was happening in your life at that moment?

Next:

(1b) Daniel prays for the forgiveness of sin. (v4-14)

Daniel 9:3 (ESV) 3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

These are the things he does to express grief and mourn over sin. Daniel is humbling himself before God and declaring his devotion to him when he says:

Daniel 9:4a (ESV) I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God,

You, my God, there is nobody like you who is most revered and awe-inspiring.

In verses 5 and 14, he confesses why his people are in exile and compares their actions to God's.

We have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, not listened, committed treason against you, God, not obeyed, and to us belongs shame, says Daniel.

But to you, O YHWH, belong righteousness, mercy, forgiveness.

The curse and oath here are from Lev. 26 and Deut. 28, where God told the people what would happen if they did the things Daniel is now confessing.

Daniel says, "We’ve done everything wrong, and you’ve done everything you said you would." He confesses the sins of generations past to those near and far, the whole nation.

This morning, we also had a “prayer of confession” in this service. Please know that no pastor can forgive your sins. You must confess your sins to God directly, who is faithful and just to forgive.

Confession is a vital part of our worship. Why? Well, through it we:

acknowledge human sinfulness,

express our great need for God’s grace and forgiveness.

remind us of our ongoing dependence on God

humble our hearts us to hear God’s word

strip away any thought of being better than others

We are part of a covenant community that shares in the burdens of sin and the joy of forgiveness through Christ. When an Elder says, "Now listen to a verse of pardon," it is a reminder of what Christ Jesus has done for us all.

Going back to the text, we see that:

(1c) Daniel prays for mercy. (v15-19)

Daniel asks God to avert his anger, let his people return to the land, and rebuild the temple. He appeals to God’s righteous nature and character to keep his promises and be gracious to them again for his own sake.

In verse 17, you can hear echoes of Aaron's blessing to the people back in.

Numbers 6:24–25 (ESV) 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

He concludes with a pleading:

Daniel 9:19 (ESV) 19 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.”

Point # 2:

(2) God answers Daniel’s prayer. (v20-23)

Look at verses 20-23.

Daniel 9:20–23 (ESV) 20 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, 21 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.

(2a) God hears Daniel’s praying. (v20-21)

Notice the evening sacrifice here. There haven’t been sacrifices in the Temple in a long time, but Daniel’s identity before God has not changed even at 80. Think about how extraordinary that is. We know from scripture that God listens to our prayers when made the right way with the right heart.

1 Peter 3:12a (ESV) 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.

(2b) God gives Daniel understanding (v22)

22 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.

God did not send Gabriel to Daniel just because of his obedience in prayer. God’s hand is on Daniel; it is God's will that Daniel knows and understands what he plans to do next. Daniel is part of God’s work among his people.

(2c) God loves Daniel. (v23)

23 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.

Daniel typifies a person whose soul has faith in God. He prays to his God (verse 4)

Daniel 9:4b (ESV) who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Remember, in an earlier chapter, Daniel would rather die than disobey.

The word that goes out is a prophecy that we will discuss next. However, let’s first hear more about why he is getting this extraordinary visit.

God interrupts Daniel’s prayer with the message that you are treasured and loved by me. And what does he do with this understanding? He is to pay careful attention.

It is essential to see God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer. He hears the prayer of people who humbly approach him in dependence and submission to his will.

We have the same choice as Daniel and his people did, right?

When your sins have cost you relationships and reputation.

When you get a medical diagnosis that you feared might happen.

When you fail to get the grade even though you tried your best.

When you don’t get the promotion at work.

When a preacher you admire and their ministry falls into scandal.

When you want your country to value certain things, they don’t.

When you long for a mate but have not yet made that connection.

When your husband and kids don’t appreciate your care and work

When someone you love endures the hardships of special needs.

When you are misunderstood or bitter over broken relationships.

When your child abandons the faith and rejects the God you love.

When you can’t have the friends you have been looking for,

When loved ones are dying or being moved to nursing homes.

When you suffer a miscarriage and silently mourn the loss.

When your parents are dying, and there is nothing you can do.

When you long to be somewhere else but God has you here.

When you are exiled and forced to live in a foreign place.

Our response is either to blame God in rebellion or humble ourselves and seek his will.

Many people will preach about God’s plan for individuals here. But, friends, understand that we are bound together.

The plans he knows he has for us… are those that bring about our salvation and right relationship. And he isn’t making them up as he goes. God doesn’t look down through time and see what is going to happen. See, he decreed all history before time began. We pray to a God who rules over all, even our hope. He knows your whole life already.

“Because he lives, I can face… what? Tomorrow.”

See, the global church of believers in Jesus is today’s Judah. God didn’t give Daniel a different hope than he gave the rest of his people. We have the same hope, or we have no hope at all.

Point #3:

(3) God reveals his plan to Daniel (24-27)

Remember, one purpose of prophetic scripture is to encourage the faithful, and what follows is profoundly encouraging.

(3a) God’s plan deals with sin (v24)

Verse 24 begins

Daniel 9:24a (ESV) 24: “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city,

In Hebrew, the phase Seventy Weeks means “Seventy Sevens.” These words together represent “weeks” of years — 70 periods of seven. This is consistent with the years of Jubilee from Leviticus 25:8 (ESV)

Gabriel tells Daniel that the new prophecy God reveals to him will not take 70 years like Jeremiah's, but 70 times 7 or 490 years.

And we learn what will be accomplished by the prophecy that Gabriel is helping Daniel to understand. Within the text of this verse is a pattern of pairing the first and the last thing toward the middle as in:

to finish the transgression, … to anoint a most holy

to put an end to sin … to seal both vision and prophet,

and to atone for iniquity … to bring in everlasting righteousness,

Friends, only one person in history can meet this description. It is the messiah Jesus, and here Daniel is learning about God’s plans for his people to give them hope and a future.

The Messiah will confirm how sin will be brought to an end. Christ’s death is the final sacrifice and the ultimate revelation of God. All prophecies in scripture find their conclusion in Jesus.

God tells us this over and over in scripture. We read in

Isaiah 43:25 (ESV) 25“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Remember what Daniel prayed… for your own name's sake.

Let’s pick up in verse 25, where we see

(3b) God’s plan keeps his promises (v25)

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 weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.

Lots of people get wrapped up in timelines and dates. I leave you to study that on your own except to say that the seven “sevens” period begins with Cyrus's decree to rebuild Jerusalem in Ezra chapter 1 and Daniel’s prayer. The 62 “sevens” period is roughly between the prophet Nehemiah's and Jesus's times.

What is important here is that God kept his promise. The second temple was erected, the city squares and walls were established, and many were able to return to the land. And there were troubled times—recall the Maccabean revolt, for example.

(3c) God’s plan means hope for believers (26-27)

Next, in verse 26 it says,

Daniel 9:26 (ESV) 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.

Jesus is the anointed one who shall be cut off. “shall have nothing” is also translated as “not for themselves.” He was despised and rejected by his people, who crucified him instead of a known criminal.

Jesus tells us what this is about in Mathew, chapters 23 and 24.

Matthew 23:35–36 (ESV) 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Jesus says judgment is coming not thousands of years from now but within the generation of those he is speaking to. Remember Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple. Remember preached to the Pharisees to correct their hollow rules and lack of true faith.

Jesus goes on to say.

Matthew 23:37 (ESV) 37“ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate

Their house (Herod’s Temple), which the disciples marveled at, will be declared desolate and empty. He told them not one stone would stand on the other, remember.

Now look at verse 27.

Daniel 9:27 (ESV) 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.”

Jesus knows that his people will reject him as their Messiah, and they will continue worshiping him as if he never came, offering ritual sacrifices to a God who has ended the need for them. Jesus is the anointed one who is cut off and the prince of the people who brought desolation and destruction to their city. The one who made it desolate is Titus of Rome, who destroyed the 2nd Temple in 70 AD, just as Jesus said.

Let us refer back to the prophet Isaiah, who says:

Isaiah 53:11-12 (ESV) 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

God laid upon him the sin of the whole world. Jesus is the bringer of a new covenant, in which he bears the sin. Listen to the scripture Daniel would have also read.

Jeremiah 31:31–33 (ESV) 31“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, 32 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. 33 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.

Jesus at the Last Supper said “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt 26 : 27-28)

Jesus tells us:

Matthew 24:15–17 (ESV) 15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house,

Well, when is this when Jesus was speaking of? The temple was ultimately destroyed and turned into a pagan site by the Romans. Jews were not able to enter the city. If you go to Rome you can see the menorah and sacred objects from the Temple pictured being carried away by their legions. It remains destroyed, desolate, empty.

Jesus tells us in:

Luke 21:20–21 (ESV) 20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it,

Who is the you that Jesus is speaking of in this passage? It is the disciples present with him. He warns them ahead of time what to look for and what to do because he had already told them these things. Historians have said that close to 1 million people died in this siege. They also tell us that Christians remembered Jesus' words and fled the city early on in the conflict, avoiding the catastrophe that was to occur when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and fought the pharisaical Jews.

We refuse to divide over end times speculation.

Today, I shared the traditional messianic view of verses 24-27. The scripture I shared and the works of many associated with the Protestant Reformation affirm this view.

You may encounter other interpretations, which is okay if Jesus is the focus and scripture is the proof. The early church fathers held multiple interpretations. At First Baptist Laurel, we do not keep to a single view of how these prophecies will work out.

However, as you make up your mind, I suggest a couple of things because people sometimes take a view on this obscure passage, especially verse 27, and then treat PEOPLE in ways that scripture does not support.

We don’t manipulate people with end-of-times stuff. What do you mean? We don’t show people movies where their friends disappear and ask them to pray with us in a moment of terror. That is spiritual abuse. The plain-spoken word of God is powerful unto salvation. We want committed lives of enduring faith.

We don’t pressure each other to vote a certain way based upon someone’s perceived position or friendliness with the state of Israel as if one interpretation is supreme and God needs our help for some end times interpretation to come true. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us. The church is me and you. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Do exercise your voting privileges for sure, pray for Israel, especially believers there, just don’t try to bind someone else’s conscience on non-essential things. There are many examples of this today.

Daniel’s purpose in writing is to encourage the faithful to believe that God will keep his promises, not answer every question.

Friends, there is a reason the less clear prophecies in Daniel and Reveleation aren’t detailed in the Apostles' Creed, the Baptist Faith, and Message, or the Westminster Confession.

You can make up your own mind while staying focused on what unites us in Christ.

Ephesians 1:18–21 (ESV) 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Jesus is the focus of the message to Daniel and the ultimate hope for all who believe. Friends, I don’t know what all of this means in verse 27, but I know who does, and like Daniel, we can trust that he is in control. See

“I need no other argument; I need no other plea

It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.”

Hebrews 9:26b–28 (ESV) 26b… But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

251All historians must confess that the turning point of the race is the cross of Christ. It would be impossible to fix any other hinge of history. From that moment the power of evil received its mortal wound. It dies hard, but from that hour it was doomed.—29.124

Charles Spurgeon

All that we just read is true. After 70 years, there was a decree: the people of Judah returned, the 2nd Temple was built, and the Messiah came. A new covenant was established. And Jesus will return, bringing final judgment for the living and the dead. We have an immeasurable, unfathomable hope. If that does not encourage you, check your spiritual pulse.

By way of application, brothers and sisters, I ask.

Application

How deep does your faith go?

You might say, "My faith is strong." Well, there are at least two measures of faith.

Look at your calendar and your bank statement.

If the time you spend in personal Bible study and prayer is too small, the time you spend disciplining other people is too small, or the treasure you contribute to the work of the church you call home doesn’t reflect your ability to contribute, your faith needs to be met with fresh action.

That examination may encourage some. I urge you to share your testimony with brothers and sisters who aren’t as far along in the journey. We all walk together.

Do you trust Jesus as your hope in life and death?

The Jesus you just heard about awaits you as a judge at the end of your life or upon his return.

Acts 10:43 (ESV) 43 To him [Jesus] all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Through these double doors, there is a prayer room where we would love to pray with you and answer any questions you may have.

Let us pray.