Daniel 9

CHAPTER 9

Daniel’s Prayer (9:1–19)

1–3 The prayer and vision recorded in this chapter occurred in the first year of Darius, that is, 539 B.C., the year Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians. Daniel had been an exile in Babylon for nearly seventy years. He remembered Jeremiah’s words that the Exile would last seventy years and at the end of that time the Jews would be restored to their homeland (Jeremiah 25:11–12; 29:10). He surely remembered Isaiah’s prophecy, spoken a century before Jeremiah’s time, about the coming of Cyrus to free the Jews from captivity (Isaiah 44:28; 45:13). Now the Persians under Cyrus had come! Now the seventy years were nearly finished! Naturally Daniel expected the Lord to act soon to free His people and restore them to their land. And so, knowing that he was praying according to God’s will and plan, Daniel uttered the magnificent prayer recorded in verses 4–19.²⁸

4–19 The prayer recorded here can serve as a model for our own prayers. Daniel’s prayer has several important features. First, throughout the prayer, Daniel includes words of praise for God; he remembers God’s mighty works in the past.

Second, Daniel is concerned with God’s glory above all; he puts the interests of God before the interests of his people or himself. He prays that his people might be set free so that God will be seen by the nations as a powerful, righteous and faithful God, a God who keeps His covenant of love with His people (verse 4).

Third, Daniel confesses his own sins and the sins of the people. It was they who had broken the COVENANT, not God. In verses 11–14, Daniel acknowledges that God acted righteously when He inflicted on His disobedient people the punishments and curses written in the LAW of Moses (Leviticus 26:14–39; Deuteronomy 28:15–68).

Fourth, and most important, Daniel bases his prayer on the clear promises of God in Scripture; he knows that he is praying according to God’s will, and that therefore he can approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16). Daniel is not basing his prayer on his own or his people’s merits but rather on God’s GRACE and mercy (verse 18). God answers prayer because of His mercy, not because of our RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Daniel ends his prayer by twice saying: “For your sake, O Lord” (verses 17,19). “It is your sanctuary that is desolate” (verse 17); “it is your Name that is being dishonored” (verse 18). “The nations are looking at the desolation of your city and your people and saying that you could not protect them. O Lord, hear and act . . . because your city and your people bear your Name” (verse 19).

Daniel has given us a model for praying effectively. He had faith in God (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24); he sought to live a righteous life (1 John 3:21–22); he confessed his sins (verse 20); he put God’s glory—God’s Name—first (John 14:14); and finally, he prayed according to God’s will (1 John 5:14–15). When we pray in this way, God will grant our requests—or give us something better!

The Seventy “Sevens” (9:20–27)

20–23 God responded to Daniel’s prayer before he had even stopped praying; God sent the angel Gabriel²⁹ to give him an answer. Daniel had been focusing on the seventy years of exile predicted by Jeremiah; now Gabriel was going to extend Daniel’s vision to a period of seventy “sevens”—490 years (verse 24). Daniel would be told not only about the end of the Exile but also about future events of even greater importance.

24 Here we come to one of the Old Testament’s most significant—and difficult—prophecies: the coming of seventy “sevens” of years, during which God will restore Israel both physically and spiritually. Gabriel tells Daniel that during those 490 years, a number of things are to be accomplished: putting an end to transgression and sin, atoning for wickedness, bringing in everlasting righteousness, sealing up (fulfilling) vision and prophecy, and anointing the most holy.³⁰

As we look at this list, it is clear that most of these things have not been accomplished in any final sense. And yet many more than 490 years have passed since Daniel wrote these words. How are we to understand this? The next verses give us a clue.

25–27 Between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the arrival of the Anointed one (Christ), there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty–two ‘sevens’ (verse 25)—that is, a total of sixty–nine “sevens,” or 483 years. The “issuing of the decree” to rebuild Jerusalem took place in 457 B.C.; it is the decree issued to Ezra by Artaxerxes³¹ (see Ezra 7:11–26). If one counts 483 years from 457 B.C., one arrives at 27 A.D., the date of the beginning of Christ’s ministry when He was anointed by the HOLY SPIRIT (Mark 1:9–11). According to verse 25, that 483 years is divided into seven ‘sevens’ (forty–nine years)—the time required for the rebuilding of Jerusalem—and sixty–two ‘sevens’—the time between the rebuilding of the city and the anointing of Christ. Then, in verse 26, Daniel writes: After the sixty–two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed one will be cut off. Jesus was indeed cut off (crucified) three years later—“after” the sixty–two sevens.

According to verse 26, after Jesus is “cut off,” the people of the ruler (the Romans) will destroy the city and the sanctuary; indeed, the Romans under Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Then Daniel writes: War will continue until the end. Jesus Himself taught that wars and hardships would continue right up to the end of the present age (see Mark 13:1–8).

Notice that these events described in verse 26 take place after the seven sevens and the sixty–two sevens have passed. But what has happened to the final “seven,” the seventieth seven? It is mentioned in verse 27; presumably there is an interruption of many centuries between the sixty–ninth seven and the seventieth seven; this “interruption” is the current age in which we are now living. This final “seven” will come just before Christ returns to earth; it will be a time of great tribulation³² (see Mark 13:24–27).

At this point the reader may wonder: What is the point of all this? Verses 2427 are indeed difficult to translate and difficult to interpret; not all scholars agree about their meaning. Should we just forget about these verses?

Absolutely not. There are no passages in God's Bible that we can “just forget about.” First of all, Jesus knew the book of Daniel and quoted from it (Matthew 24:15). Second, He identified Himself with the son of man that Daniel wrote about (Daniel 7:13). Jesus knew that Daniel’s prophecies were about Him. He also knew that people would doubt He was the Messiah the Jews were waiting for. Therefore, God gave a vision to Daniel which would confirm that Jesus was indeed the Messiah: Daniel was shown—over five centuries beforehand—the exact year that Jesus would begin His ministry. This is why we cannot “forget” Daniel’s prophecies.³³