Seventy Sevens Until the End - The Book of Daniel - Daniel 9:20-27
Title: Seventy Sevens Until the End
Daniel 9:20-27
Outline:
1. The Lord affirms his love and care to Daniel.
2. God foretells a plan of total restoration that will come in stages
3. The Messiah is coming who will be cut off for the sake of his people.
4. Judgement will come through God's enemies and upon God's enemies.
Scripture references:
- Daniel 9:20-27
- Exodus 34:5-6
- Leviticus 25:8-11
- Is. 53:8
- Luke 4:16-21
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12
Application:
- Do you know, deep down, in you heart that you are loved by God?
- This is one of the signs that the message of the gospel is really penetrating you heart.
- Do you see history and the present as the battlefield between the enemies of God and God's people?
- Does a false definition of success prevent you from knowing that God is with us in the midst of our struggles?
Discussion questions:
- How do we handle very difficult to understand passages? What do we do when we are not quite sure what something means? Does this mean the Bible is confusing?
- Why does the angel make a special emphasis on telling Daniel he is loved by God?
- What is the Jubilee and how does it fit into this prophecy?
- What is the christian expectation of world history?
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We are working our way through the book of Daniel. Last week we left off on Daniel 9, where Daniel realizes from reading the book of Jeremiah that the exile in Babylon will take about 70 years.
He begins to pray and confess the sin of his people, asking God to fulfill his promises and restore them.
So much in our life depends on HOW we define success.
So much of our choices, our attitudes, our plans and our actions will be determined by what it is that you look forward to - what are the goals, what are the end results that YOU are looking forward to and striving for.
This is really important because HOW you envision success for yourself will then determine how you react and how you interpret your situations in life.
For example, if you have set for yourself the expectation that success in my life means financial prosperity, and you find yourself in season after season of financial difficulty in your life and you are struggling with inevitable conclusion that you will never succeed and you will always be a failure.
Because you have set your financial situation AS THE METER of your well being - you are locked into a certain conclusion about your situation.
but this conclusion can be totally wrong. There are different reasons WHY you may be in financial difficulty.
- It may be because you ARE lazy and don't have self control in how you spend your money
- It may be because you have been diligent and hard working, but there are situations in your life that are beyond your control that crashed in and wrecked your financial situation, but that is a season of learning and patience that God is taking you through - in this case your financial situation is NOT a reflection of your well being
So much in our life and our thinking depends on HOW we define our goals, the things we look forward to, our definition of success.
Daniel was a man who's vision of success and fulfillment was totally shaped and aligned with God's purposes and his personal participation in God's kingdom.
Even though he lives a prosperous life in Babylon, he prays a prayer of confession for the sin of his people, he longs for God to restore - he sees his life as living through the judgement of God.
As Daniel prays and longs for God to fulfill his promises in his life God gives him an answer of WHAT to expect from history.
This answer to Daniel teaches us that we must see our ultimate restoration as coming from GOD and his plan - and we must see that God's victories come through patient endurance.
READ Daniel 9:20-27
1. The Lord affirms his love and care to Daniel.
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.
Daniel was in extreme weariness and weakness - he was confessing and sorrowful over the sin of his people - over the sadness of his situation in history.
the first thing we need to make a note of is the way that God cares for Daniel here.
God is caring for Daniels soul.
"at the beginning of your petitions an answer went out, and i have come to give it, for you are treasured by God..."
such beautiful words!!
Does God hear me in my prayers and struggles?
YES HE DOES - at the beginning of your prayers.
The answer may not always come right away. But he heres and he is coming!!
Daniel is told that he is heard right away by God even though he himself did not feel that right away.
God always hears the call of his people in the midst of their struggles and challenges - though the timing of his answers doesn't always align with our expectations.
Why is this so important for Daniel to know?
"You are treasured/loved by God..."
God will say again in the next chapter - he wants to reaffirm his love and his presence even when there are seasons it may not be felt.
There's this silly impression that people have of God in the OT that he is harsh and judgmental, as opposed to being loving in the NT - this is totally not the case if we pay even a little more attention to the text.
First of all Daniel, God loves you.
This is so important for us to hear every day of our lives, especially in the midst of our difficulties. We may have lots of questions - we may have lots of things we don't fully understand - God says first of all in his word today, that he loves you. He loves you today and he has a purpose for the exact place that you find yourself today.
Exodus 34:5-6
5 The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
Stop and let that sink in
Do you know that it your heart today?
God's answer here is to give Daniel hope and encouragement.
As encouraging as his introduction is, the message that the angel gives is...interesting.
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.[f]
The[g]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.”
Huh?? How does this answer give Daniel hope??
Its actually one of the most misunderstood, debated and confusing passages in the whole Bible. EVERYONE agrees with that conclusion - and that is pretty much the only thing that people agree on.
Some people treat this passage with extreme certainty and make it a point of unhealthy disagreement.
Entire ministries are built around certain interpretations of this passage.
Not all passages in the Bible are equally understandable - but the core foundational truths are the most clear.
As with a lot of other apocalyptic passages, we need to be cautious about extremes. We need to do our best to allow the pattern of Scripture to interpret this passage for us, and we need to start with the parts that are most obvious to us, and work down from there.
Obviously we don't have time here to cover every line in detail here, but what I would like to do is sketch our my best attempt at understanding the main ideas and why it gives hope and direction to Daniel.
Some of you who are die hard prophesy experts may disagree with me here and we can definitely have more conversations.
A very important starting point for us here is to remember that Daniel is mainly concerned about the question of returning from exile and God's kingdom being restored.
2. God foretells a plan of total restoration that will come in stages
OT prophets always speak of a period of return from exile and of spiritual healing and restoration to the people of God and the rest of the world.
What is clear from the prophets in the OT is that there are two stages to the return from Babylon - there is going to be a physical return when the Jewish people come back and rebuild their city and temple - AND there is going to be a final, later, TRUE spiritual return.
This is clear especially in places like the book of Isaiah where God speaks of a return of his people in the future that is not just a geographical return but a return that will be part of a process of total renewal of the world, of the inner life of his people, or real and healing to the whole world.
Now, when we look at the purpose statement that the angel gives to Daniel, it is clear he has in mind the full plan of the true return and restoration of God's people.
"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."
He is speaking of the full restoration, the true return.
But he tells Daniel its not going to happen quite yet.
"Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city...."
This is where the seventy weeks or more specifically in the Hebrew its literally seventy sevens come in.
Whats up with the number seven?
It is referring to a common OT idea called the year of Jubilee
Leviticus 25:8-11
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 ram’s horn 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. 11 The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines.
God ordered the life of Israel around 7 year periods. Every 7 years was a year of rest for the land.
then ANOTHER special year after 7 7's - every 49 years -
the year of Jubilee is a year of redemption and restoration, a year when land and debts are restored to their original owners.
A year of financial, social and physical rest and recovery for the people of God.
It was financial and social - but it was also prophetic - the year of jubilee pointed forward to the promised work of God to bring healing and restoration to the whole world through his plan of salvation.
When God tells Daniel about the future, he is pulling on this idea of Jubilee and saying that a total, real true Jubilee is coming not in seven sevens but in seventy sevens.
The question is - do we take this seventy sevens as literal numbers or do we take it more as a flexible symbolic term pointing forward to God's restoring work through Jesus?
This is a good question and is up for debate.
One of the mistakes people do is they get all mathematical about it. They start creating math formulas to predict that EXACT DATE of the end of the world. This is a mistake because that is not how prophetic language is used in general and its not how apocalyptic language is used.
The ten horns, the four wings on the monster - Daniel would not have taken is a mathematical code - he obviously would have taken it as general patterns that communicate a clear idea.
In the case of the seventy weeks or seventy sevens, the obvious point God is telling here is this: "Daniel, yes the people will go home soon, but the REAL and FULL return is a much bigger project that will take a much larger chunk of history."
One commentator says, "Its like Daniel was focused on one mountain peak that he was climbing, and then as he got close to it, he is being shown that there is yet another, much bigger peak that is the path of God's redeeming work - not just the 70 years in Babylon, but the seventy weeks that Gabriel is saying...Daniel is given a more detailed picture of that path.."
3. The Messiah is coming who will be cut off for the sake of his people.
the seventy sevens are broken down into THREE segments:
- seven
- 62
- one
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.
Two sections of time are highlighted here - the time when Jerusalem is rebuilt - and the time when an anointed one, a ruler will come.
The time for rebuilding the temple and the city is seven sevens - about 49 years
this pretty closely covers the time of Nehemiah and Ezra - the season when the king allowed them to return and rebuild the city.
"It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat,
but in difficult times."
then we have another - MUCH longer period - 62 sevens/weeks
26 After those sixty-two weeks
the Anointed One will be cut off
and will have nothing.
This is the long stretch that brings us to the coming of the Messiah, the Ruler - now what is interesting and unexpected about this ruler that Daniel is told about is that he is "cut off, and have nothing..."
vs 24 says one of the biggest things God is going to accomplish in this time period is to end our sin and guilt.
How can God accomplish this task of ending our sin, of paying for our sin?
Isaiah 53 talks about a person, a figure, taking the sins of the people on himself to clear their guilt and Isaiah speaks of the servant of God being "cut off" for the sake of his people.
Here is where we notice more that Gabriel's message to Daniel is interwoven with hints and connecting points to other parts of God's Word such, namely the book of Isaiah.
Is. 53:8
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.
And here in Daniel 9 we have this phrase that says that the coming ruler, the coming Messiah, the leader, he will bring in the jubilee and the renewal of God's people - will be cut off - rejected, condemned.
One morning in a synagogue gathering in a small village, Jesus
Luke 4:16-21
16 He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”
Jesus reads the text from Isaiah about the ultimate, spiritual Jubilee - the time of real healing and restoration - and he says - IT IS HERE IN ME. I have come to bring real healing to sinners and forgiveness to all!
What is also interesting is what happens next in the story in Luke
"28 When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. 29 They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff."
this is a hint of how they will treat the one who comes to bring healing - the reject him. Even though Jesus came to preach the truth to his people and bring his people home to God, they rejected him, judged him, convicted him and handed him over to the Romans to be killed.
In Jesus we have the fulfillment of Daniel 9, Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 61
That covers seven plus 62 weeks - thats leaving one week - the seventieth week.
4. Judgement will come through God's enemies and upon God's enemies.
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.”
The next contentious question is WHO is 26b and 27 referring to - is it the SAME ruler, the Messiah that we have been talking about in 26a - or is this a different, evil ruler - the opposite of Christ - the main enemy of God?
"he will make a firm covenant and put a stop to sacrifice and offering..." - some say this is Jesus, forming the new covenant and ending the sacrifices because he gave himself once for all.
I am not full convinced of this.
Based on the pattern of how Daniel keeps referring to evil rulers of the world who oppose God and his truth, I am inclined to believe its not talking about Jesus, its talking about an evil ruler.
What I think is happening is another instance where the Bible is talking about a specific historical event - but then it pushes past that event to speak of something bigger and more significant that this event is pointing to.
"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."
This is speaking of ANOTHER future destruction of Jerusalem - I think its referring to what happened in 70 AD when the romans came in and completely destroyed EVERYTHING.
This is how Jesus quotes this passage too - Jesus uses this passage to speak of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and warning his disciples about what is going to happen is the not so distant future.
Jesus said these things will happen to the Jewish religious system as yet another judgement because they rejected Jesus who came to bring them the good news.
But then verse 27 seems to push past singular historical event, and points to a bigger pattern or fulfillment in history.
Daniel does a similar thing with these "little horns" in chapters 7 and 8
They are speaking of specific leaders in history who will oppress God's people - but then they also seem to point forward to a bigger fulfillment of a anti-Christ figure who rises up at the end of the age to oppose God and his people.
Paul speaks of this character in 2 Thessalonians 2
For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.
The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie, 10 and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie, 12 so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.
Notice here - just like the judgement that came on the Jewish religious system came through the destructive power of Rome in AD 70, so judgement will come on the world at the end of the age - God permits an evil ruler, or an evil system, to dominate the world and weave deceptive and destructive lies in the hearts of people to follow it.
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.
I think this is symbolic language that described the end times ruler/or evil system - which imposes its own religious truth on the world.
So the million dollar question is WHO is this antichrist and how do we identify him? Is it Joe Biden? Is it Donald Trump? Is it Vladimir Putin? Is it China? or North Korea?...
Is it some super powered satanic overlord who will appear at the end and we will all clearly know its him but for now we just chill and wait??
No because all these predictions are counter weighed by Jesus' OTHER words - be watchful, alert and ready - because he may return to judge the living and the dead at any moment!
He can come back today and then we will look back and know - it WAS Joe Biden all along.
He can come back in 100 years - but the dangers remain.
We live today in a evil world system that religiously opposes God and his people.
We see truly satanic and evil things take place in the middle east and India where Christians are being slaughters and their homes burned.
We face a progressive sexual political system that is more and more opposed to God and his truth - forcing everyone to comply and agree or suffer the consequences.
Daniel was closing in on the peak of his mountain, his 70 years of exile and he was shown a much bigger peak and a longer path up ahead of the people of God.
Today we find ourselves somewhere along the steep and dangerous climb of that final peak in God's story of history.
We live in a time when the enemies of God grow and gather.
The question is where do you align your life in this story?
What are the goals and end points that your life is striving for?
Are you aligned with God's plan for history? Or are you trying to make your own?
The angel says, all these terrible things will keep going -
"until the decreed destruction
is poured out on the desolator.”
There is coming a time when, As Paul says, Jesus will return suddenly to the scene of the world stage and crush his enemies.
For now we find ourselves in the middle of verse 27 somewhere that we follow the pattern of our savior, who was cut off, who was rejected
We follow in his pattern and in his power. We learn endurance and strength and dependence on his grace the struggles in the trials in the oppression in the difficulties, we experience in our lives.
Application:
- Do you know, deep down, in you heart that you are loved by God?
- This is one of the signs that the message of the gospel is really penetrating you heart.
- Do you see history and the present as the battlefield between the enemies of God and God's people?
- Does a false definition of success prevent you from knowing that God is with us in the midst of our struggles?
Today, as we approach the table, its a memorial and a celebration. Its a memorial because it is remembering Jesus' death and suffering in our place
Its a celebration because he is the long awaiting Savior who has come at the peak of history to bring about God's long awaited promise of healing and restoration.
To proclaim victory to the captives of sin and guilt, to give strength to the weary, to put speak to us in the most powerful way - that we are loved.