DANIEL TWO (Part 1)
Keys of the Kingdom Study Guides • Daniel Nine
DANIEL NINE
Covenant Curses or Blessings?
Review
1. What did the Sanctuary point to in every detail?
2. How many services did the Sanctuary have?
3. Which service did the demonic horn attack?
4. Which service would bring judgment or cleansing?
5. When would this judgment or cleansing occur?
6. Who had given Daniel the 2300 year prophecy?
7. Did Daniel understand the 2300 year prophecy?
Key: 1. Jesus; 2. Two, the “daily” and the “yearly;” 3. The “daily;” 4. The “yearly;” 5. At “the time of the end,” sometime in the nineteenth century; 6. Jesus, the Wonderful Numberer; 7. He did not understand (see Daniel 8:27)
Introduction
Chapter nine was written 13 years after chapter eight. In this chapter we find Daniel seeking to understand the vision of Daniel eight. His earnest desire was to see God’s city and sanctuary rebuilt.
Our new key for this lesson: Restoring my covenant experience by confession and repentance.
Read Daniel 9:1
1. What must have given Daniel confidence?
Note: God’s plan was on track. Darius had just been “made” king by Cyrus, thus the Medes and Persians were in power just as foretold in Daniel two, seven, and eight.
Read Daniel 9:2
2. What did Daniel prayerfully study?
Note: He studied the book by the prophet Jeremiah, who was a contemporary to Daniel.
Read Jeremiah 11:1-4,8-10
3. What was the reason for the captivity of the Jews?
Note: It is very important to obey the words of God’s covenant. But “they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the imagination of their own evil heart, therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant. . .” They had broken the covenant God had made with their fathers.
4. What is a covenant?
Note: The word “covenant” is translated from the Hebrew word “bariyth” {ber-eeth'}, which means a “treaty, alliance, agreement or pledge.” The word “bariyth” comes from the root word “barah” which means “in the sense of cutting or to cut.” The concept of covenant would remind them of the sacrificial system, which involved the cutting of an animal sacrifice. In everyday usage we find the same type of language. We say: “I’ve cut a good deal,” or when we get married we “cut the cake.” Each of these are essentially covenant statements.
Read Jeremiah 34:18-20
5. In Daniel’s day, how were people relating to their covenant with God?
Note: Daniel’s people understood the concept of “cutting” the covenant. However they were only paying lip service to it. The book of Jeremiah indicates that the Israelites had broken each of the Ten Commandments. The commandments were to be obeyed as an expression of their love for the God who had brought them out of Egypt. As a result of this disobedience, God gave them into the hand of their enemies and allowed the sanctuary to be desolated.
God did not want His sanctuary to be desolated or His people displaced. Every sacrifice indicated that Christ Himself would enter human history and be “cut off” for His people and their sins. He would rather be cut in half than to break His part of the covenant with His people. If only they would have the same attitude toward Him.
Read Daniel 9:3
6. In light of his understanding of the broken covenant, what did Daniel do?
Note: This was a serious prayer. Sackcloth and ashes were worn around the time of a funeral. Daniel was essentially saying, “I am praying in a way that indicates I am completely dead to myself and completely dependent on You, Lord.”
Read Daniel 9:4,12-13fp
7. What was the focus of his prayer?
Note: In the Bible, God promises blessings to those who are faithful to the covenant, and curses to those who are not faithful (see Deuteronomy 28). God keeps His side of the covenant and is merciful to the faithful and obedient (Daniel 9:4). This is a covenant blessing. However if His people are unfaithful, He faithfully allows the covenant curses to be poured out on His people. He confirms the covenant and pours out the judgment on the unfaithful (Daniel 9:12-13fp). Each sacrifice pointed toward the life of Christ. Each sacrifice indicated that He desired to enter into human history and “confirm” the covenant. He consented to fall under the curse of the covenant that we might be able to enjoy the blessings of the covenant.
Read Daniel 9:5,6,10,11
8. What did Daniel acknowledge?
Note: He confessed his own sins and the sins of His people. He speaks of the fact that “all had transgressed” God’s law. His prayer reminds of what the New Testament says. “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and sin is the “transgression of the law” of God (1 John 3:4).
Read Daniel 9:7fp,9fp
9. Who did Daniel see as his only hope?
Note: God is the only hope for Israel. His righteousness points out our sin. In every way He is true to His Ten Commandment law. However, His forgiveness is freely offered to those, who like Daniel, rely wholly upon His mercy.
Read Daniel 9:13lp-19
10. On what did Daniel focus in concluding his prayer?
a. God desires us to turn away from sin and seek His truth (verse13)
b. God’s works (verse 14)
c. God’s acts in history (verse 15)
d. God’s name (verse 15)
e. God’s righteousness (verse 16)
f. God’s sanctuary (verse 17)
g. God’s mercy (verse 18)
h. God’s forgiveness (verse 19)
When someone says to us, “your child is in trouble,” we will listen more and have more interest than if it were someone else’s child. There is a story told about Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. A large number of people were waiting outside to talk with the president. A little boy went to the head of the line and knocked on the door. A man opened the door and asked his name. As a result of his name, he was immediately allowed to see the president. What was his name? Todd Lincoln. This is the case with God. When we use Jesus’ name in prayer, it brings us right in before the Father. When we have the right relationship with God, there is power and strength in Jesus’ name. This is why Daniel prayed using Jesus’ name. It is by His righteousness and His alone that we are saved.
Before continuing our study of this chapter, let’s look at one other thing Daniel must have seen in his study of the book of Jeremiah.
Read Jeremiah 25:8-11
11. Was this good news?
Note: At first this may have seemed like good news to Daniel. However hadn’t Daniel been told that the restoring of the sanctuary to its rightful state wouldn’t happen for another 2300 years? (Daniel 8:14) How could Daniel reconcile these two messages? Jeremiah said that God’s people would return after 70 years. But in the vision of chapter eight, he had been shown that it would be 23 centuries. This is why he prayed in Daniel 9:19: “Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
How was Daniel to understand the connection between the 70 years of Jeremiah and the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14?
Read Daniel 9:20-23
12. Who came to help Daniel understand?
Note: Gabriel, the same angel that had come to his aid in chapter eight, now comes to Daniel at the time of the evening sacrifice.
13. What did he come to help him understand?
Note: Gabriel says in verse 23, “I have come to tell you…therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.”
Read Daniel 9:24
14. What does Gabriel begin to explain?
a. There was a special amount of time “determined” for Daniel’s people and Jerusalem. The word “determined” is from the Hebrew “chathak” and literally means “cut off.” Remember what we’ve learned about covenants? God was essentially saying, “Daniel, you and your people have made mistakes. I’m going to ‘cut’ a new deal with you. I’m going to give you seventy weeks.”
b. 70 weeks times 7 days per week equals 490 days. Remember that a day equals a year in Bible prophecy (Ezekial 4:6). So, 490 prophetic days equals 490 literal years. 490 years were cut off the vision of the 2300 years for Daniel’s people, the Jews.
Read Daniel 9:25
15. When does the prophecy of the 70 weeks and the 2300 years start?
Note: From the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem.
Read Ezra 1:1-4; 6:7-12,14; 7:7-27
16. When did decrees go forth and which one should we use to start this prophecy?
Note: There were three decrees which is made clear by Ezra 6:14. One decree by Cyrus, one by Darius, and one by Artaxerxes:
a. Cyrus’ decree was issued in 538 BC that the temple was to be rebuilt (Ezra 1:1-2).
b. Darius’ decree was issued in 519 BC that the temple was to be rebuilt (Ezra 6:7-12).
c. Artaxerxes’ decree was issued in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes which was 457 BC. His decree was to rebuild the city, the wall around the city, and to beautify the temple (Ezra 7:7-27). The date of 457 BC for this decree is one of the surest dates known in archeology. The Greek Olympiad dates, Ptolemy’s Cannon (an Egyptian source), the Elephantine Papyri, as well as many cuneiform tablets, all indicate that the seventh year of Artaxerxes was 457 BC.
This is the date in which the decree went forth to rebuild the city and wall–so this is the date in which to begin the prophecy.
This was understood by Sir Isaac Newton. Remember we said in our first lesson that Sir Isaac Newton wrote more on the book of Daniel than he did on physics. He said:
“Now the dispersed Jews became a people and a city when they first returned in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus when Ezra returned with a body of Jews from captivity and revived the Jewish worship…to judge and govern the people according to the laws of God and the king, Ezra vii. 25. There were but two returns from captivity Zerubbable’s and Ezra’s; in Zerubbable’s they had only commission to rebuild the temple, in Ezra’s they first became a city by a government of their own. Now the years of this Artaxerxes . . . was in the year (458 BC).”
As we convert from BC to AD we need to remember that year one was repeated twice without the year zero between. This requires us to add an additional year to all date calculations. Perhaps Sir Isaac Newton overlooked this fact.
So the prophecy would begin in 457 BC, and in seven weeks (49 years), the temple, the wall and the city would be rebuilt.
Read Daniel 9:25 again
17. Who was to come after 69 weeks?
18. How long would it be before Messiah the Prince would come?
Note: Seven weeks plus 62 weeks equals 69 weeks. To convert this into years we would simply multiply 69 weeks times seven days per week. This gives us 483 days. 483 prophetic days equals 483 literal years. If our start date is 457 BC, in what year would Messiah the Prince arrive?
483 - 457 = 26 AD
As we convert from BC to AD we need to remember that year one was repeated twice, without a zero in between. This requires us to add one year to our calculation to account for the missing year. Thus Messiah would come in 27 AD.
Read Luke 3:1,3,21,22
19. What happened in 27 AD?
Note: Historians have dated the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar as 27 AD. What happened in this year? John the Baptist was preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 3:1,3). Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized. John recognized the He was “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John1:29). He was to be the covenant sacrifice! When Jesus was baptized. The voice of God the Father spoke, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21,22). The word “Messiah” literally means “the anointed one,” thus Jesus became the Messiah at this time. Did Jesus recognize what was happening? After Jesus was baptized and came back from the wilderness, He said, “the time is fulfilled.” (Mark 1:15) What time would He be speaking of? The time prophecy of Daniel nine!
Read Luke 3:23
20. How old was Jesus when He began His earthly ministry?
Note: Jesus was 30 years old. When a man of Israel became the age of 30, they were eligible for the priesthood. In light of our discussion of the covenant, this is especially interesting. Jesus at age 30 was anointed and began His public covenant ministry.
Read Daniel 9:26fp,27fp
21. What was the next event in Christ’s life?
“Messiah shall be _____ off, but not for ______.”
“He shall ______a covenant with ______for one week. He shall bring an end to ______and ______.”
Key: cut, Himself, confirm, many, sacrifice, offering.
Note: Can you see how the covenant concepts in Daniel’s prayer are addressed in the angel’s answer? Through a study of Jeremiah, Daniel saw the reason for the Jewish captivity had been their disregard of the covenant. What this prophecy indicates is that the Messiah would come and renew their relationship with Him by being “cut off,” not for Himself, but for them (9:26fp). He would become the sacrificial lamb they had daily seen represented in the sanctuary services. Their covenant with God would be renewed. Likewise, just as Daniel in his prayer acknowledged that God had “confirmed” His word to them by allowing them to feel the curse of the covenant, Christ in His death on the cross would truly “confirm” the covenant through bearing the curse for the sins of the entire world. He would enter into human history, become sin for us, and become our sacrifice and offering for sin.