The Answer to Daniel's Prayer: Christ!
by Rev. Kirby Williams
God answers Daniel's prayer with a Christ-centered revelation known as the "seventy-weeks prophecy".
Text: Daniel 9:20-27
Date: 08/19/2018, the Evening service.
Series: "Daniel: Divine Dominion and Deliverance" Part 23
Description:
After Daniel's beautiful prayer of humility and contrition, God speedily answers him by sending the archangel Gabriel to tell him of the advent of the Messiah and the age to come. In perhaps the most profound and complex of the Old Testament prophecies, Daniel is told in amazing detail of the ministry of Christ, His ultimate death, the eradication of sin, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the eschatological Kingdom to come. We will do our best to unravel the many mysteries in the text, but all the while keeping our focus on the central issue-- that all of human history centers around the coming of Christ and God's Providential plan of redemption. In short, the answer to Daniel's prayer for the rebuilding of the "holy hill" and the restoration of the Glory of God is completely answered in-- Jesus the Christ!
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I. Introduction
II. Exposition of the text, Daniel 9:20-27.
A. Context
B. A visit from the archangel Gabriel, vs. 20-23.
1. Recapping Daniel's prayer, vs. 20.
2. The messenger arrives, vs. 21.
3. Gabriel's message for Daniel, vs. 22-23.
C. The "seventy-weeks" prophecy, vs. 24-27.
1. Introduction and timespan, vs. 24a.
a. Figurative versus literal interpretation.
i. Looking at the numbers figuratively, Jer. 25:11, Lev. 26:68, 25:8.
ii. Looking at the numbers literally.
b. The focus of the revelation.
2. The six divine goals for the prophecy, vs. 24b.
a. The "negative" goals.
i. To finish transgression.
ii. To put an end to sin.
iii. To atone for iniquity.
b. The positive goals.
i. To establish righteousness.
ii. To fulfill prophecy, Dan. 7:13-14.
iii. To anoint a "holy place".
c. Prophetic foreshortening.
3. The oracle to restore Jerusalem, vs. 25.
a. Finding the starting point, vs. 25.
i. Looking at the words.
¥ Determining the objective of the decree.
¥ The anointing of a prince.
¥ An issue of punctuation.
¥ The nature of the restoration.
¥ Restoration under duress.
ii. Trying to decipher the starting decree.
¥ Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, Ezra 1:2-4.
¥ÊArtaxerxes I in 445 BC, Neh. 2:5-8.
¥ÊArtaxerxes I in 457 BC, Ezra 7_12-26, 9:9.
iii. Summation
b. The coming of the Anointed One, vs. 26a.
c. The ultimate destruction of Jerusalem, vs. 26b.
i. The foreign prince.
ii. A scene of utter destruction.
iii. God's Providence revealed.
4. The eschatological end, vs. 27.
a. A strong covenant.
i. Identifying the maker of the covenant.
ii. Identifying "the many" the covenant is with.
iii. The nature of the covenant.
b. A divided week.
c. The persecution of God's people.
d. The abomination that makes desolate.
III. Application
IV. Conclusion
