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Recap of the sermon from July 24th (Daniel 9:24-27):
1. Daniel’s understanding that the Babylonian exile of Israel was about to end caused him to ask several questions: What would happen after that? What about the Messiah and the Kingdom? How and when would God’s promises (Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic Covenants) be fulfilled? What about the people of Israel, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple? God sends the angel Gabriel to give Daniel a panoramic view of the future of Israel. In Exploring the Old Testament, the author writes: “God told Daniel through the angel Gabriel that it would be seventy weeks of years [490 years] before God would remove all sin, bring in everlasting righteousness, anoint the holy temple, and fulfill all prophecy (9:24). During this period, Jerusalem would be rebuilt, the anointed Messiah would come and be cut off, and then the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, and the people would undergo great persecution and war (9:25,26). In the middle of the last week of years all worship at the temple would be halted. But by the end of that week, the one who desolated and persecuted the people of God would be defeated.”
2. To understand this passage it is essential to understand verse 24. This passage specifically concerns Daniel’s people and the city of Jerusalem. J. Dwight Pentecost writes: “This prophecy, then, is concerned not with world history or church history, but with the history of Israel and the city of Jerusalem.”
3. This passage predicts the coming of Messiah (and His rejection and death) some 483 years from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:1-8) in 445-444 B.C. Thus the Kingdom would be delayed.
4. Daniel 9:27 contemplates the Seventh week of Daniel, also called the Tribulation. The seven years begins with the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and the Antichrist. All throughout Israel’s history they had a tendency to trust in earthly alliances instead of in the Lord. We are not unlike Israel in this area. As several writers expressed it. “How prone we are to choose earthly alliances, confederacies of the world and the flesh, instead of God’s gentle way.” ”We recite: ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God,’ we boast that our God is able to deliver us; but in an emergency we go to Egypt for help….It ought to embarrass us to ask help from this world.” By nature it is easier for people to trust limited human resources than God’s inexhaustible supply….are you trusting others to do what only God can—and will—do on your behalf?”
