Daniel: Prayer and Prophetic Prediction

Daniel  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  40:34
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Intro

Psalm 139:4 NIV
Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
God knows before you utter a word, what you’re about to say!
God knows you, he know what you need. He knows how many hairs are on your head!
We also know that God has a plan for history. God is sovereign over this world. He knows what he is doing, and he is doing it for the benefit of God’s people & His own glory.
So,
If God knows what I need, and he has a plan for our good that is in action, why pray?
Why pray to God? He knows what I’m thinking. He knows what we need.
No point in asking right?
Yes!
Yes, there is a point in asking.
As we see here, prayer dispatches angels!
Although God knows what we need, he knows what we will ask, yet, he will use our prayers as mechanisms to bring it about.
To put off prayer is like saying: “God will provide all I need, so I don’t need to go to work today.”
See how it misses the point?
Yes, God will provide you needs, but the mechanism that he uses for most of us is that we will got to work and earn a wage and use the funds to purchase what we need.
Prayer really works. It is really important. And it is a mechanism that God uses in your life to achieve His purposes.
Psalm 17:6 NIV
I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
We’re looking at Daniel 9 today as we make our way through this prophetic book. Like most chapters, it’s too big to look at in fine detail, but because it is a complete unit, it’s not ideal to break it into smaller pieces. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!
As always, the invitation is open to discuss the Bible beyond what we cover here - we can chat after the service or you can come round for a coffee and we can get stuck into the text, maybe wheel out a few commentaries or even a lexicon if you’re feeling adventurous!
In Daniel we have been seeing time and time again how God is faithful to His people, despite the fact that things look dire.
They look like they’re done for - overpowered and blown to the wind. Yet, God has plans for His people and rough circumstances can’t undermine those plans.
For God’s people in Daniel’s day, and for us today this is a great comfort.
We can get caught up in the issues that are right in front of our face, and we can feel helpless as we see events unfold that we have no power to control. Yet Daniel consistently helps us to step back and see the bigger picture. We just entrust ourselves to a faithful creator while doing good.
So lets look at four big points from this chapter. And I will breeze through the first 3 fairly quickly so we can hang out in everybody’s favorite bit - the 70 Weeks!

1. Prayer from the Scriptures

What time are we? In the 6th Century BC - during the exile of the Jews after the destruction of the temple.
Where are we? In Babylon city most likely - modern day Iraq, just down the road from Baghdad
Darius, son of Ahasuerus/Xerxes is unknown to external records. Quite possibly he is either a co-regent of Cyrus who was the leader of the Medo-Persian empire, or Darius is a title/name for Cyrus. Either way, a lack of extra-biblical evidence should not cast doubt on the authenticity of the text, given how it has been demonstrably historically accurate.
The events of this chapter are in the first year after the Babylonian kingdom has fallen! Something that is quite important to the story - lets look:
Daniel 9:1–2 NIV
In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
Daniel is reading the scriptures - the word of God that came through Jeremiah and was written down.
Very fresh Scriptures! The last events described in Jeremiah had only taken place a few decades earlier - and yet those prophetic words were already written down and circulated. Given Daniel’s position as a powerful, wealthy & educated man, it’s not surprising that he was able to have a copy for his own use.
But he is doing something incredibly important for God’s people - he’s listening to God! He is taking great care to understand what God has said to his people.
Where do you go when you want to hear from God? It’s not popular in Christian circles to say this, but it is important you know - this is where you go to hear from God! He has spoken! Yes, you may have inclinations and dreams and inspiration that seems to come from the Lord, but how do you know it to be true, how do you know it is not your heart deceiving you, or worse, a demon dressed as an angel of light?
There are deceiving prophets and lying tongues, even in the church. There are wolves among the sheep and tares in the wheat. So how can I know what I think is God’s plan is the right way to go?
“How can a young man stay on the path of purity?
By living according to God’s word.” Ps 119:9.
“Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.” Ps 119:105.
So Daniel is looking to what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah - what did it say? It is the promise of judgment and mercy.
Jeremiah 25:8–12 NIV
Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever.
SO, God is punishing Israel for their disobedience, and using the Babylonians to do it. But here is Daniel, in the first year after Babylon has fallen. His hope is starting to rise!
The 70 year are over - Babylon is done. What now?
Jeremiah 29:10–11 NIV
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
What good news!!
There is an end in sight!
This man who left his homeland as a young fellow, maybe as old as Sam, has been away from his home all his life. He has been away from the place where they gathered to worship God. He has been away from the heartland of God’s people.
He longs for the restoration and For God’s name to be glorified, so he turns in prayer! He turns to plead for his friands and family, and for himself, that God might hear and answer this prayer:
Daniel 9:3 NIV
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel took this seriously. He was not messing about with His prayer. He knew what God had said, and he knew the state of God’s people, so he was praying with all his might!
So Daniel has shown us a great example of being invested in hearing from God, and then responding to God. It is conversational - he speaks to us, we speak to Him. It’s not as though we can’t bring new topics to the table in a conversation, but it’s worth remembering that what God has already spoken should be the primary focus of our conversation!

2. Prayer of Confession

God interacts with his people in what we call covenants. They’re kind of like relational contracts, like a marriage. “I’ll commit to you if you commit to me!”
Problem is that God’s people keep being unfaithful to God. So he is justified in bringing down the hammer. No one wants to enable an abusive spouse, and so one spouse is well within their rights to kick the other one out of the house when they’re being unfaithful.
Israel wanted the benefits of being in an exclusive relationship with God, but also wanted philander on the side with any passing god that caught their fancy.
Daniel well knew the failure of God’s people on this count, and so he lays it all out to God, acting once again as a mediator, to own up to the failures of Israel and acknowledge how God was in the right at every stage:
Daniel 9:4–6 (NIV)
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
If you were at one of the evening growth groups this week, this topic will be fresh on your mind. The idea of confession.
Daniel does a master class in confession - outlining the ways in they had sinned and how God had remained faithful. God was even faithful in the way he brought punishment on Israel!
Although Daniel is corporately confessing the sin of his people, it is still a great example to us. One that can also be seen in Psalm 51 when David confessed his grave sins.
It’s not like an interrogation room, where we fess-up to crimes that God didn’t know about but suspected.
It’s not about gaining absolution from a priest.
Confession is about mending a relationship.
If you have hurt someone you love, the only way to any meaningful reconciliation is through an acknowledgement of the reasons for the relational division. Two people might know exactly why they are not getting along, but the naming of the problem is a step toward a resolution.
When it comes to us and God, he knows exactly what the problem is, to an even greater extent than we do! But confession acknowledges our guilt before God (after all, God’s never in the wrong when it comes to this kind of thing!).
We have all sinned against God. And we all need his forgiveness and grace. Confession reveals our need for God’s kindness and mercy, and, it shows us how we need to change.
Our God is kind, and he has promised to provide forgiveness! SO we can bring our sins before him boldly - not insolent, but with confidence that although we have done wrong, he will forgive.
1 John 1:9 NIV
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

3. Prayer of Expectation

The last thing I reallyu wanted to point out in Daniel’s prayer is the way that he prays with expectation.
Not only is he praying with confidence based on what he had read in the scriptures, he prays with hope and expectation that God will act:
Daniel 9:17–19 NIV
“Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
James 1:6–8 NIV
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

4. Messiah is Coming (aka 70 x 7)

Come to one of the most intriguing passages in all scripture.
Few passages illicit so much partisanship. The very mention of this chapter may have put you into defensive, mode, ready to pick apart what I say (if not to my face, perhaps in your mind)
Lets put aside our pre-conceived notions, and just look at the plain text, remembering to put our selves in the shoes of Daniel and the people of Hi day who would have received and understood this message:
Daniel is still praying when...
Daniel 9:20–23 NIV
While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill—while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:
While he was still in prayer the answer arrived, the angel was dispatched at the start! (More about angelic delays in future weeks!)
He came about the time that of the evening sacrifice, demonstrating
a) Daniel, despite his temporal and geographical separation, was still synced up with the worship of God,
b) This revelation has something to do with atoning sacrifices
Why has Gabriel come? To bring revelation - like before and in the future he appears as a man to reveal God’s plan.
Apocalypse - it reveals. It is a comfort, despite how difficult it can be to decipher!
Repetition: “insight and understanding” “consider the word and understand the vision” & “Know and understand this”
Usually symbolic, but not always.
What is the prophecy? It is a prophecy that lifts Daniel’s eyes away from His immediate concern of the end of the 70 years in Babylon and to something greater and better down the line.
It starts with a summary of the prophecy:
Daniel 9:24 NIV
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
70 x 7 or “weeks” (literally sevens). & being a perfect number - this is a perfect perfect time.
Other prophecies set a precedent for a “day” = “year”
If this is true we’re talking about 490 years total.
What will this period achieve?
Finish transgression - Big Ask!
End sin!
Atone for wickedness!
Bring in everlasting righteousness!
seal up vision and prophecy
anoint the Most Holy Place/One!
Big stuff! No measly feat.
So how will all this be achieved? More detail please...
The first period:
Daniel 9:25 NIV
“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
Word or decree will go out to rebuild Jerusalem - eventually it will be rebuilt with defensive measures,
Then a period of 7x7 + 62x7 = 69 x 7. So not the whole amount yet, but the bulk of the time in the middle.
Then Messiah comes.
Depending how you count, this can fit the years between decrees of Cyrus or other kings to rebuild Jerusalem and Jesus. The temple and Jerusalem are rebuilt, but it was not a smooth ride.
Some count to the start of his ministry with baptism, others to the very day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Either way, this coincidence is too close to be ignored! When Daniel is looking to see God’s temple and people to be restored, God gives him a prophecy of the arrival of one who is the temple who restores God’s people.
While Daniel is confessing their sin, God tells him of a coming messiah who can take away all sin!
What now?
The gap(?)
Daniel 9:26 NIV
After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
Then what? The messiah is put to death! He has no justice, no family, no honor - nothing.
Then people of another ruler/prince will come and tear down the city and temple.
Then it’s the end times with wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes and desolation.
But wait, we haven’t counted out to our 70x7s. Where are the remaining 7?
The last seven sevens:
Daniel 9:27 NIV
He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
The evil ruler makes a covenant with a bunch of people. Not like God’s covenant it’s an evil covenant and it will last for a prefect time “7”
The end of sacrifice - To our ears this sound great - but lets not be anachronistic. To Daniel’s ears this is portrayed as an evil thing. It is representative of the worship of God being brought to an end, with an “abomination that causes desolation”
What is the meaning of this last 7? Hard to place, not as neat!
Literal years don’t add up to anything historically significant
Some see the gap before the last 7 as being between Jesus death and a later great Tribulation (I believe that the GT is from Jesus deaith till his return)
Symbolic? in 70AD the temple was desecrated and torn down. The earlier desecration under Antiochus Epiphinies?
Jesus to forewarned of a coming abomination of desolation, and it seems to look forward to the very end:
Matthew 24:14–16 (NIV)
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
The covenant? The systems of the world, where great power enter into pacts and partnerships. Evil opposition to God.
As we have already observed in Daniel - patterns mimicked throughout History But we lack clarity on this last point.
Telescoping specific events with future prophetic pictures - like mountain range.
The remainder is pretty clear - Jersulame rebuilt, Messiah comes, temple torn down and times of distress and tribulation.
Daniel’s immediate cares are put in the perspective of the big picture. With hope, but also the realistic understanding that it’s not smooth sailing till the end.
Still, there is much gained! What will this period achieve?
Finish transgression - Big Ask!
End sin!
Atone for wickedness!
Bring in everlasting righteousness!
seal up vision and prophecy
anoint the Most Holy Place/One!
Jesus!

What now?

1. Pray from the scriptures, with confession and expectation.
2. Expect the Messiah
Ephesians 3:20–21 NIV
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
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